Equinor and its partners started Bacalhau first oil, the firm's largest foreign field. It is a milestone for one of the largest deepwater projects globally. It is Equinor's largest overseas offshore investment with over 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of recoverable reserves and peak production capacity of 220,000 bpd.
The pre-salt Brazil offshore field came on stream on October 15 at 22:56 Rio time by ExxonMobil Brasil, partners Equinor and Petrogal Brasil (Galp|Sinopec), and Pré-sal Petróleo SA (PPSA).
"Bacalhau was conceived with a next generation of accountables in mind who can deliver on scale, affordability and lower carbon intensity," Equinor President and CEO Anders Opedal said. "It makes our oil and gas production and value creation sustainable in the long term in decades ahead."
The ultra-deepwater reservoir, over 2,000 meters beneath sea level, is being explored from one of the planet's most advanced Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels. Modec built and ran throughout the first stage of the 370-meter-long, 64-meter-wide vessel and utilized combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) technology to keep carbon intensity low.
Equinor's about 9 kg/boe target is record low for offshore production. Phase 1 includes 19 production and injection wells coming onstream in stages as development ramps up.
Brazil is a core growth area for us," EVP for E&P International Philippe Mathieu added. "Bacalhau will be a significant contributor to Equinor's goal to achieve more than $5 billion free cash flow in 2030 from our overall portfolio.".
Over the course of its 30-year lifetime, Bacalhau will generate about 50,000 jobs and deliver long-term economic benefit to the Brazilian economy. Equinor aims to take full ownership of the FPSO units when MODEC's first operating period terminates.