Argonauta

Argonauta Oil and Gas Field Profile

Location

The Argonauta Oil and Gas Field is located in the Campos Basin, offshore Espírito Santo state, Brazil. Specifically, it is situated approximately 110 km from the coast, in water depths ranging between 1,500 and 2,000 meters[4,.

Field Details

• The Argonauta field is part of the larger Parque das Conchas (BC-10) project.
• It includes several sub-fields such as Argonauta B-West and Argonauta O-North.

Operators and Ownership

• The field is operated by Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda.
• The ownership is shared among Shell Brasil (50%), ONGC Campos (27%), and QatarEnergy (23%).

Discovery and Production

• The first discovery well was drilled in 2000, and the final discovery well was drilled in 2003. The fields were declared commercially viable in 2005.
• Production from the Argonauta O-North field, which is part of Phase 2 of the BC-10 project, began in October 2013. This phase has an estimated peak production of 35,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).

Reserves and Production

• The Argonauta field has significant reserves, including:
  • Original oil in place: approximately 1,520.86 million barrels.
  • Original gas in place: approximately 14,445.31 million cubic meters.
• By 2015, the cumulative production from the field included:
  • Oil: 31.62 million barrels.
  • Gas: 253.37 million cubic meters.
• The field is expected to continue production until it reaches its economic limit in 2041, having recovered about 56.10% of its total recoverable reserves by 2017.

Infrastructure

• The production is facilitated by a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel named Espírito Santo, which was built in Singapore and delivered to Brazil in late 2008. The FPSO has a processing capacity of 100,000 boe/d and a storage capacity of two million barrels of oil.
• The FPSO is moored in approximately 1,800 meters of water and is connected to the subsea wells via subsea manifolds and lazy-wave steel-catenary risers (SCRs).

Technological and Engineering Aspects

• The development of the field involved advanced technological and engineering solutions due to the ultra-deepwater and heavy oil nature of the reserves.
• The drilling and completion of the wells were carried out using a floating rig surface blow-out preventer (BOP) and deepwater trees. The wells were produced through high-performance subsea equipment.
• The FPSO required significant power and heat delivery systems to drive the seabed lift equipment and process the heavy crudes, which range from 16° to 24° API.

Environmental and Operational Considerations

• To minimize environmental impact, natural gas produced during exploration is pumped back into the Ostra field, and a gas export pipeline system is deployed. Flaring and CO2 emissions are reduced through these measures.

Phases of the BC-10 Project

• Phase 1: Included the development of Abalone, Ostra, and Argonauta B-West fields, with production starting in July 2009. This phase involved nine producing wells and one gas injector well.
• Phase 2: Focused on the Argonauta O-North field, which came online in October 2013.
• Phase 3: Comprises five producing wells in Massa and O-South fields and two water injection wells in Massa, with production starting in March 2016. This phase is expected to add up to 20,000 boe/d at peak annual production.