BG Group has started a new extended well test in the Sapinhoá North area of the BM-S-9 concession in the pre-salt Santos Basin marking the delivery of another milestone in the field development plan. The floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) Cidade de São Vicente was connected to the 3-BRSA-788-SPS well, in water depths of 2 140 metres.

The FPSO will operate in the area for up to six months, gathering technical information on reservoir behaviour and oil flow in the subsea lines, amongst other data. During this initial test phase the well is expected to produce at around 15 000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) - as authorised by Brazil's National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels.

Commercial production from the Sapinhoá discovery began early last month when FPSO Cidade de São Paulo started up, on time and on budget, with a capacity to process 120 000 barrels of oil per day and 176 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. Another FPSO, the Cidade de Ilhabela, also known as FPSO 4, will produce from the Sapinhoá field and is on track to start production in the second half of 2014. This FPSO has a production capacity of 150 000 barrels of oil per day and 212 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas.

Tags: BG Group