Atapu is a deepwater oil and natural gas field with a shared deposit, located at a water depth of more than 2,000m in the Santos basin pre-salt, offshore Brazil.
The project is owned by TotalEnergies which holds a 15% interest in the Atapu field, partnering with other companies. Petrobras, the operator of the field, owns the largest share at 65.7%, while Shell has a significant stake of 16.7%. Petrogal holds a smaller share of 1.7% and PPSA owns the remaining 0.9%.
Recommended White Papers
Recommended Buyers Guides
The first development phase of the field started production in June 2020. The final investment decision for the second phase of operations was announced in May 2024.
Atapu shared deposit location
The shared deposit comprises Oeste de Atapu and Atapu fields, along with a portion of the federal government’s non-contracted area. Operated by Petrobras, the Block BM-S-11A licence area includes portions of Sururu, Berbigao and Atapu fields in the Iara cluster area.
The Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP) received the development plan for the three accumulations within the BM-S-11A block and extending to the area surrounding Iara, in 2015.
The unitisation agreement for the Atapu accumulation was approved in August 2019. The Atapu unitised area under the agreement includes the Atapu field with 17.03% of the unitised area covered by the BM-S-11A licence area. Galp holds a 1.7% interest in the Atapu unitised area.
Berbigao and Sururu accumulations in Block BM-S-11A will also undergo a unitisation process.
Development details of the Atapu field
The Atapu field is developed with the P-70 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) platform, situated in the eastern part of the Santos Basin, near the Buzios field, 200km offshore Rio de Janeiro.
The P-70 platform was transported to Rio de Janeiro from China on the Pioneer semi-submersible transport vessel using a dry tow operation in January 2020. The platform can interconnect up to eight producing and eight injection wells.
The FPSO operates at a water depth of 2,300m with a processing capacity of up to 150,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). It can treat up to six million cubic metres of natural gas and has a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels. It is the second FPSO unit installed in the Block BM-S-11A licence area for production. The first FPSO, P-68, was installed on the Berbigao field in November 2019. P-70 will double the Iara cluster’s total production capacity.
Atapu phase two development details
The second development phase of Atapu-2 will comprise the installation of a newly built FPSO P-84. The FPSO will boast a production capacity of 225,000bopd and a gas processing capability of ten million cubic metres per day.
The newly built vessel will integrate cutting-edge technologies including zero routine flaring and venting, variable speed drives, emissions control and carbon capture systems. Additionally, it will showcase an all-electric concept centred on efficient power generation and heightened energy efficiency, aiming for a 30% reduction in the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions.
Construction of the FPSO is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2025 with the final delivery expected in 2029.
P-70 FPSO details
The box-shaped P-70 FPSO is 300m long and 74m wide, with the deck area equivalent to three football pitches. The dry weights of the topside and hull of the FPSO are 25,000t and 53,000t respectively.
The FPSO is built from 45,000t of steel and houses 1.5 million metres of cables. It has a maximum displacement of 350,000t and a designed service life of 25 years.
P-70 features an offshore oil and gas treatment plant and is also integrated with a power supply. It is installed with 17 functional modules on the deck for processing seabed oil and gas.
Production individualisation agreement of Atapu shared deposit
The deposit extends across different concession areas and is being developed as a single project under a production individualisation agreement.
PPSA represents the Brazilian government in the production individualisation agreements in the Pre-Salt Polygon and strategic areas. Petrobras, Total, Petrogal and Shell entered the agreement for the Atapu shared deposit in October 2018.
Contractors involved
COOEC was the general contractor for the development of the P-70 FPSO, which was built at the company’s Qingdao yard in China.
Boskalis was contracted to perform the dry transportation of the FPSO.
For the second phase of the Atapu field development, SLB OneSubsea will supply Petrobras-standard configured pre-salt vertical trees, subsea distribution units, subsea control systems and pipeline systems. In addition, they will provide installation, commissioning and life-of-field services associated with these systems.
Seatrium secured a contract from Petrobras to supply the new FPSO platform P-84 for the project.
