Brazil
Expanding the Limits
New Frontiers
Going beyond. This is one of the recurring challenges here at Petrobras. We are researching ways to find new oil provinces, new formulae to re-explore mature fields and to make known accumulations feasible.
That is how we overcame the challenges of offshore exploration and reached the pre-salt. And that is how we will continue succeed in dealing with future challenges.
In the Depths
In the 1980's, there was no technology available to explore oil wells at depths of more than 500 meters. Discovering fields in deep waters, in the Campos Basin, placed us in a unique scenario in the world.
Our creativity took us further, deeper. We changed the standards of the day, and created the anticipated production system. We used the well testing structure to produce oil until the fixed platform was ready. It is by no mere chance we are the deepwater exploration leaders.
Advanced Recovery
Imagine a compact sand bank immersed in oil. That is more or less how an oil field is. That is why it is no easy task to lift the oil from it. The most common solution is to inject water to increase pressure in the well. The water goes in and pushes the oil out.
When the well has been extensively explored, difficulties increase even more. Then it is time to think about how to extract the very last drop of oil. Our innovative research has singled out more efficient processes for this task.
Earth Scanner
A lot of research is done before a new field can be developed. We do testing in simulators to gain knowledge and to make technologies feasible to be used in the exploratory process and to incorporate oil reserves.
To obtain a virtual reality environment, we make calculations and improve approaches to simulate geological processes in basins by means of specific parameters and data.
Increasingly Deep
We are writing a new page in the story: producing in the pre-salt fields. This is a peculiar chapter because of its grandiosity. Everything, from the distance off the coast to the pre-salt's depths of more than 6,000 meters, is huge.
To reach the oil, we need to drill through upwards of 2,000 meters of salt. And in the midst of it all, we have to think about the equipment we will use and plan how to transport the oil and gas to the nearest refinery. Nearest? Nothing is near in the pre-salt.
Transportation
The experience of exploring in deep and ultra-deep waters helped us develop transportation processes in vessels and pipelines. Everything that leaves the fields goes through terminals and reaches the refineries to be processed.
Technology applied to the oil industry helps us enhance the forms of transportation and to modernize and increase the process' reliability. It is using this knowledge that we bring the oil and gas from the pre-salt to the continent.