First oil from Brazil's Libra oil prospect

Petrobras and its partners on Monday announced first oil from the Libra mega-prospect, located in ultra-deep waters 180km off Rio de Janeiro in Brazil's pre-salt Santos basin.

Output is being carried out via the Teekay Offshore/Odebrecht Óleo e Gás-operated floating production, storage and offloading unit Pioneiro de Libra, capable of producing 50,000b/d and compressing and reinjecting 4Mm3/d of natural gas.

This start-up of the early production system, scheduled to last for a year, will generate revenue while also enabling technical data to be collected to optimize subsequent development phases.

So far, 12 wells have been drilled in the Libra block. "Considering its magnitude, production potential, good quality oil and high commercial value, Libra opens a new business opportunity in the offshore industry", Petrobras stated.

The Libra consortium is led by Petrobras, with a 40% stake, together with France's Total (20%), British-Dutch Shell (20%) and Chinese CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%), in addition to Brazil's state-run Pré-Sal Petróleo SA (PPSA) as the contract manager.