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Petrobras Begins Refining First Load of
Pre-Salt Crude
RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian state-controlled
energy giant Petrobras on Thursday began
refining its first load of crude from the
pre-salt region, a new, ultra-deep, frontier
that Brasilia hopes will transform the
country into a leading oil producer and
exporter.
The work of processing the first 264,000
barrels from the Tupi field began Thursday
at the Revap refinery in Sao Jose dos
Campos, Sao Paulo state, the company said in
a statement.
Tupi, discovered in late 2007 and located in
the Santos Basin some 300 kilometers (185
miles) off Brazil’s southeastern coast, is
the first field from which oil has been
extracted in the pre-salt layer, so-named
because the up to 80 billion barrels of oil
it is estimated to contain are located
thousands of meters under the sea floor
below an unstable layer of salt.
Petrobras began the experimental field
exploration phase at Tupi on May 1 in a
ceremony attended by President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva, although those operations had
to be suspended for several weeks due to
technical problems and have only recently
been resumed.
Tupi, which has been drilled to a depth of
2,140 meters (7,015 feet) below sea level,
has recoverable reserves estimated at
between 5-8 billion barrels of oil
equivalent.
Petrobras says the oil extracted from Tupi
is of high quality (29.2 degrees API) with
low sulfur content.
“The oil in the Tupi area also is low in
naphthenic acids and (is promising in terms
of) profitability, since it (is not the type
that) produces diesel, which is the lowest
value-added product,” the statement added.
Petrobras, an integrated energy company and
the global leader in deepwater oil
exploration and production, operates in 27
countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia and
Europe.
Shares of Petrobras, Brazil’s largest
corporation, trade on the Sao Paulo, New
York, Madrid and Buenos Aires stock
exchanges, but the Brazilian government
retains control through a golden share. EFE
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