Pre-Salt

We have been on a long technological journey since the first discoveries in deep waters.

The pre-salt discoveries are among the most important made in the world over the last decade. This province comprises large accumulations of excellent quality, high commercial value light oil, a reality that puts us in a strategic position to meet the great global demand for energy.

To discover these reserves and operate efficiently in deep waters, we have developed our own technology and work in collaboration with suppliers, universities, and research centers. We hire drilling rigs, production platforms, vessels, and submarines with features that set the entire energy industry chain into motion.

Pioneering technologies
for the PRE-SALT

For the pioneering technologies that we have developed for the pre-salt, in 2015 we were awarded, for the third time, the highest recognition for technology that an oil company can get as an offshore operator: The OTC Distinguished Achievement Award for Companies, Organizations, and Institutions.

Get to know our pioneering technologies for the pre-salt

garoupa

MARLIM

MARLIM SUL

roncador

lula

iracema sul

PÓS-SAL

SAL

PRÉ-SAL

We have been producing increasingly more, and faster

Our daily oil production in the pre-salt cluster has tripled in the last 4 years, from 500,000 barrels per day in 2014, to 1,500,000 barrels of oil per day in 2018.

Average output from the pre-salt

The comparison with our own output track record shows the dimensions of this result: It took 45 years, from the creation of our company, for us to reach the output of the first million barrels of oil, in 1998. It took 49 years, from the creation of the company, to reach the 1,500,000-barrel mark in 2002.

2010 41,000 BPD
2014 500,000 BPD
2016
1 MILLION BPD
2018
1.5 MILLION BPD

The fast growth in production proves the high productivity of the wells in operation in the pre-salt, and represents a significant milestone in the oil industry, especially because the fields are located in deep and ultradeep waters.

Number of wells x Output

POST-SALT 1984 4.108 WELLS

41,000 BARRELS PER DAY

PRE-SALT 2018 77 WELLS

1,500,000 BARRELS PER DAY

Another fact that shows the high productivity of the pre-salt is the number of producer wells compared to the output volume. In 1984, we used to need 4,108 producer wells to reach 500,000 barrels per day. In the pre-salt, we have tripled that production volume with 77 wells.

Without giving up the world’s best operational practices, we have been drilling wells in the pre-salt in less and less time. The average time it takes to build a well in the Santos Basin pre-salt cluster, for example, decreased 2.5 times between 2010 and 2018, with the progress that has been made in the knowledge of geology, with the introduction of cutting-edge technologies, and with increased project efficiency.

Mean construction time for offshore wells

2010 310 DAYS
2018 127 DAYS

With the knowledge accumulated in our operations and with technological innovation, the average cost to lift pre-salt oil has dropped gradually over the past few years. From $9.1 per barrel of oil equivalent (oil + gas), in 2014, to $8.3, in 2015, and less than $8 per barrel in the first quarter of 2016. In 2018, it dropped below $7.

Technology, knowledge, skills, and opportunities for the goods and services industry

The business turnover the pre-salt generates is a vector that drives the improvement of the goods and services chain, providing technologies, knowledge, professional training, and opportunities to the industry. Most technological challenges are overcome by associating the efforts of the operator and supplier technical teams, which are often supported by scholars and researchers from universities and technology centers.

Pre-salt in the Santos Basin

The output per well in the Santos Basin pre-salt cluster is well above the
oil and gas industry’s average. It adds up to about 25,000 barrels of oil
per day, on average. Of the ten highest-producing wells in Brazil, nine
are in this area. The most productive one is in the Lula field, with an
average daily flow of 36,000 barrels of oil per day. Meanwhile, Libra, one
of the largest and most promising oil and gas production projects ever
developed by the offshore industry, has reservoirs that are among the
most productive in the world, with oil columns measuring up to 400
meters thick - equivalent to the height of the Sugar Loaf, in Rio de
Janeiro.

The first major definitive production system in the Santos
Basin pre-salt cluster to go on-stream was the Lula Pilot,
in October 2010 (FPSO Cidade de Angra dos Reis).

Lula

The most
productive field

Petrobras and its partners currently produce about 1.5
million barrels of oil equivalent (oil + gas) per day in the
pre-salt. This figure is equivalent to more than half of our
total output and is proof of the company’s success
operating in this new exploratory frontier.

This cumulative production occurred only six years after
the first production system went on-stream in the Santos
Basin, in the Lula field, and ten years after the first
discovery, in 2006. Lula is already the largest oil
producing field in Brazil, and the largest domestic
producer of natural gas.

Lula

Biggest oil & gas producer

In May 2017, together with our partners in the BM-S-11
Consortium, we started oil and natural gas output in the
Lula Sul area, in the Santos Basin pre-salt, via platform
P-66, the Consortium’s first FPSO, and the seventh unit of
the Lula field. Located approximately 290 km off the
coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, at a water depth of
2,150 meters, the P-66 can process 150,000 barrels of oil
and compress 6 million cubic meters of gas per day, and
it was initially interconnected to the Lula field through
producer well 7-LL-60D.

Lula

P-66 vessel platform

Located in ultradeep waters, in the Santos Basin pre-salt,
Libra has reservoirs that are among the most productive
in the world, with oil columns measuring up to 400 meters
thick - equivalent to the height of the Sugar Loaf, in Rio
de Janeiro.

Due to its magnitude and major potential, this huge
deposit opens a new business horizon and expands
investment opportunities in the Brazilian offshore
industry. The development of technologies that remain in
continuous evolution is an outcome of the knowledge
acquired over time and of massive investments, not only
ours, but also of partners and suppliers.

Mero

The most
promising field

Pre-salt exploration in the Mero Field marks a new
working model, with greater cooperation among
companies operating out of the industry. In addition to
us, Shell, Total, and the Chinese CNPC and CNOOC outfits
will also explore oil and gas in this area through a
constant exchange between these companies’
professionals and our team. The goal is to share
knowledge, develop new technical skills, and come up
with innovative solutions. In addition to its exploration
potential, Libra is becoming a great opportunity for the
development of the oil and gas industry.

Mero

Partnerships

The starting point for production in the Libra area was the Extended Well Test (EWT) carried out at the Mero field. This test evaluated the behavior of the oil reservoir and increased the knowledge about the characteristics of the deposit. The EWT performed by FPSO Pioneiro de Libra, a vessel that produces, stores, and offloads oil. This vessel platform has daily capacity for up to 50,000 barrels of oil and 4 million cubic meters of associated gas.

Mero

Reservoir assessment

Unprecedented solutions, especially adapted to the
peculiar conditions of that deposit, made the Libra EWT
feasible. The oil reservoirs’ high pressure, productivity, and
depth, in addition to the strong presence of gas associated
with oil and CO2, drove the creation of cutting-edge
technological solutions for the development of the block’s
production.

Mero

Innovative solutions

Understand how the pre-salt was formed

The Pre-salt is a sequence of sedimentary rocks formed more than 100 million years ago, in
the geographic space created by the separation of the ancient Continent of Gondwana.
More specifically, it was formed by the separation of the current American and African
continents, a process that started about 150 million years ago. Initially, great depressions
were formed between the two continents, giving rise to large lakes. Over millions of years,
the rocks that would give rise to the pre-salt region's oil were deposited there. Since all the
rivers on the continents that separated flew to the lower regions, large amounts of organic
matter were deposited there.

As the continents strayed, the organic materials accumulating in the new space were being
covered by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, which was then forming. That was when the
layer of salt, which is currently about 2,000 meters thick, started being formed. This layer of
salt was deposited on the accumulated organic matter, holding it there for millions of years
until thermochemical processes turned the organic layer into hydrocarbons (oil and natural
gas).

Pre-Salt

Pioneering technologies for the PRE-SALT

We have been producing increasingly more, and faster

Average output from the pre-salt

Number of wells x Output

Mean construction time for offshore wells

Pre-salt in the Santos Basin

Understand how the pre-salt was formed

Pioneering technologies
for the PRE-SALT