Spotlight: Brazil’s offshore decommissioning

Petrobras unanchored the P-32 FPSO in the Campos basin Marlim field on November 23, as the first floating platform to follow the new model for the sustainable disposal of vessels adopted by Petrobras.

The floating production unit will be recycled by the Ecovix (Engevix) group at the Rio Grande shipyard in Rio Grande do Sul state, with the scrap going to steelmaker Gerdau.

Another 11 floating units will follow the same guidelines over the next five years.

The platform's recycling plan, drawn up by Gerdau-Ecovix, includes everything from the first procedures for receiving the unit, through the dismantling work, which will take place in a dry dock, to the final disposal of the waste resulting from disassembly.

Announced last week, Petrobras' 2024-2028 business plan foresees an investment of US$11.4bn in decommissioning projects.

Of the total capex, 71% will be directed to the Campos basin, 23% to the north and northeast regions, 5% to the Santos basin and 1% to other basins.

There will be 23 platforms decommissioned, 14 of which are floating and nine fixed, as well as approximately 1,900km of flexible lines (subsea pipelines) and 550 wells.

After 2028, Petrobras estimates that another 40 platforms will have to be decommissioned, 35 of them fixed and five floating.

At the moment, the state-run firm is carrying out the auction for the sustainable disposal of FPSO P-33, which is also located in Marlim, and will follow the same decommissioning model as P-32.

Discovered in 1985, Marlim will have eight platforms removed. In their place, the new FPSOs Anna Nery and Anita Garibaldi have been installed as part of the field's revitalization program.

Brazil’s oil and gas watchdog ANP projects that offshore decommissioning activities in the country will require 51.5bn reais in investments between 2023 and 2027, with around 40bn reais earmarked for projects in the Campos basin.

According to the regulatory agency, there are at least four platforms with an approved decommissioning program that have not yet been removed: P-33 and P-37 in Marlim, the Capixaba FPSO in the Cachalote field, and the Fluminense FPSO in Bijupirá/Salema.

Shell, the operator of Bijupirá, recently contracted Subsea 7 to decommission the subsea infrastructure associated with FPSO Fluminense.

The scope of the contract includes the disconnection, recovery and disposal of 10 flexible risers, three umbilicals and nine mooring lines. Work at sea is scheduled to begin in December.

The other offshore decommissioning plans approved (and not closed) by the ANP are as follows:

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