Petrobras began oil production from the P-78 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel in the Búzios field, in the pre-salt layer of the Santos Basin on December 31st. Búzios 6 (P-78) has the capacity to produce 180,000 barrels of oil and 7.2 million m³ of gas per day. The FPSO will increase the field's installed production capacity to approx. 1.15 million barrels of oil per day. Furthermore, this project will allow for the export of gas to the mainland via interconnection with the ROTA 3 gas pipeline, expanding Brazil's gas supply by up to 3 million m³ per day.
'With the first oil from the P-78 platform, we are starting the year already advancing towards our main goal for 2026: increasing Petrobras' oil and gas production. We project producing 2.5 million barrels of oil per day throughout this year, and a large part of that will come from Búzios, the country's largest field in terms of reserves and production. In addition, we are also expanding the supply of natural gas to the Brazilian market, another goal expressed in our Business Plan,' said Magda Chambriard, president of Petrobras.
The P-78 is an FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) unit and inaugurates a new family of proprietary unit projects. The platform was conceived through the PBRef (Basic Reference Project), which consolidated hundreds of lessons learned from the first units in operation in the pre-salt layer, bringing even greater safety and reliability to operations. Furthermore, the FPSO underwent changes in its contracting, construction, and assembly strategy through the FORTALECE Program (PROFORT), which established the contractual model and technical quality and efficiency requirements for the shipyards that built it, going beyond the local content established for the field. The platform contract stipulates a minimum commitment of 25% local content. Ten topside modules, out of a total of twenty-three, were built at the BrasFELS shipyard, located in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro.
The platform is equipped with technologies for reducing emissions and increasing operational efficiency, notably the exhaust gas recovery system, the adoption of variable speed drives in pumps and compressors, and energy integrations between hot and cold streams in oil and gas processing.
The project comprises 13 wells, 6 producers and 7 injectors, equipped with intelligent completion systems that enhance production management. The unit will be interconnected with rigid pipelines for production, injection and gas export, and flexible pipelines for service lines, using innovative technologies for attaching the pipelines to the FPSO. These pipelines will allow for the high-capacity production planned for the field's wells.
Measuring 345 meters in length and 180 meters in height (to the top of the flare), the P-78 arrived in Brazil in October from Singapore, bringing the commissioning and operations teams on board. This strategy generated value, allowing for the elimination of a stop in sheltered waters in Brazil, in addition to the gains in safety, reliability, and operational readiness due to the advancement of systems commissioning during transit.
The platform is the seventh in operation in the Búzios field, the largest in the country in terms of reserves, and in October 2025, it surpassed the mark of 1 million barrels per day. This field, discovered in 2010 by well 2-ANP-1-RJS, is located 180 km off the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in ultra-deep waters of the Santos Basin, at a depth of more than 2,000 meters.
Source: Petrobras
