Global energy technology company SLB (NYSE: SLB) today announced a contract award by Petrobras, following a competitive tender, to its OneSubsea™ joint venture for two subsea raw seawater injection (RWI) systems to increase recovery from the prolific Búzios field.
The subsea RWI systems will help to increase the production of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels, which are currently bottlenecked in their water injection capacities. Once operational, the RWI systems will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per barrel of oil as they are a more efficient means of reservoir pressurization to increase recovery when compared with the conventional alternative of topside injection systems.
“As deepwater basins mature, we see more and more secondary recovery opportunities emerging,” said Mads Hjelmeland, CEO of SLB OneSubsea. “Subsea raw seawater injection is a well-proven application with a strong business case that we think should become mainstream. By placing the system directly on the seabed, we free up space and reduce fuel needs for the FPSOs as well as lessen the power needs for the injection systems. It’s a win-win for Petrobras, and one that we are very excited about. This contract will consolidate our solid local content presence in the country, contributed by the largest manufacturing plants and state-of-the-art subsea service facilities in Brazil.”
Under the contract, SLB OneSubsea will provide two complete subsea RWI systems to support Petrobras’ FPSOs P-74 and P-75, and they will each consist of a subsea seawater injection pump, umbilical system and topside variable speed drive.
As part of this project, SLB OneSubsea will further strengthen its multidisciplinary team in-country, which will cover the full processing value chain from field development to system engineering and life-of-field support. This team will also provide technical support using AI-enabled Subsea Live™ services, including continuous condition monitoring and access to domain experts.
