Peregrino Oil Field Development

The Peregrino oil field is an offshore heavy oil field located in the Campos Basin of Brazil. Discovered in 1994, the oil field has been producing since 2011.

The Peregrino oil field is operated by Norway’s state-controlled energy company Equinor (formerly Statoil) which holds a 60% interest in the field development, while the remaining 40% stake is held by China’s state-owned Sinochem Corporation.

Sinochem acquired a 40% interest in the Peregrino field from Equinor for £2bn ($3.07bn) in May 2010.

The phase one development of the field commenced production in April 2011, while the phase two development is currently underway and is slated to start production in 2021.

The Peregrino phase two development, estimated to cost approximately £2.7bn ($3.5bn), is intended to extend the productive life of the field.

Location

The Peregrino oil field is located in 100m-deep waters in BM-C-7 and BM-C-47 licenses in the Campos Basin, approximately 85km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Peregrino phase one project

The Peregrino phase one field development involved a total of 39 production wells and seven injector wells, two fixed wellhead and drilling platforms, namely Platform A and Platform B, and the Peregrino floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

The production wells are supported by electric submersible pumps to extract oil. The wellstream flows from the wellhead platforms are sent to the FPSO for processing through subsea pipelines.

The produced oil is stored in tanks and later pumped to shuttle tankers, while the gas is used for power generation to run the FPSO, wellhead platforms, and the electric submersible pumps. The water removed from the wellstream is treated and pumped through the injector wells to maintain the reservoir pressure.

The Peregrino FPSO

The Peregrino FPSO unit was built by converting a very large crude carrier (VLCC) named Maersk Nova. Measuring 332.8m-long, 58m-wide, and 31m-tall, the FPSO vessel houses a crude oil separation unit, a water treatment unit as well as gas-fired power generating units.

The processing capacity of the Peregrino FPSO is up to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the total crude storage capacity is approximately 1.6 million barrels. The temperature in the storage tanks are is maintained above 70°C for keeping high viscous crude oil in a liquid state.

The Peregrino FPSO was initially owned and operated by Maersk. The field developers Equinor and Sinochem agreed to acquire the Peregrino FPSO from Maersk for £764m ($1.2bn) in July 2012.

Peregrino phase two development project

The Peregrino phase two project was sanctioned by Equinor in December 2014. It received approval from Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) in September 2016.

The phase two development involves a third wellhead and drilling platform, namely the platform C, connected with the Peregrino FPSO.

The platform C is located in the south-west area of the field which is not being accessed by the other two platforms. A total of 15 production wells and six water injector wells are planned to be drilled in this phase.

The offshore installation of the platform C was completed in January 2020 with the hook-up and commissioning works currently underway at the site.

The Platform C topside comprises drilling facilities, utilities, power generation, living quarters, and a helideck. The topsides sit on an eight-legged jacket which is 135m tall.

The Peregrino phase two development targets approximately 273 million barrels of additional recoverable resources. It is intended to extend the field life while maintaining the design out of  100,000bpd.

Contractors involved

Schlumberger was contracted for drilling the wells from the Peregrino platform C in January 2019. The contract scope includes well construction services, drilling management services, and advanced digital technology solutions.

Heerema Marine Contractors, which executed the transportation and installation of the Peregrino A and B platforms, secured a contract to build and install an 8-legged jacket for the platform C in May 2017.

Heerema’s Sleipnir, the world’s largest semi-submersible crane vessel, completed the installation of the platform C in January 2020.

Kiewit Offshore Services, which built the jackets and topsides for platform A and platform B, also fabricated the topsides for platform C.

GranIHC, a joint venture between Brasilian GranInvenstimentos and Royal IHC, was awarded a contract for the offshore hook-up and commissioning works for the platform C in January 2019.

GranEnergia’s Olympia vessel is providing offshore accommodation service to the personnel working on the platform C to make it ready for first oil production in 2021.

Leirvik, formerly Apply Leirvik, was awarded a £37.2m ($48m) contract to build the living quarters module for the platform C.

TechnipFMC was awarded an engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) contract to lay subsea pipelines for the platform C in September 2017. Technip FMC deployed its pipelay vessel Deep Blue for laying subsea pipelines in 2019.

ABB was the main automation and electrical contractor for Peregrino FPSO, wellhead platforms, and submersible pumps in the phase one development of the project. The contract scope included the design, manufacture, installation, and commissioning of the electrical, instrumentation and automation systems for the FPSO and its associated subsea equipment.