Petrobras brings Brazil's largest undersea gas pipeline online

Rio de Janeiro, Feb 17 (IANS/EFE) State-controlled oil giant Petrobras said on Tuesday it brought a new offshore platform with the capacity to produce 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and 6 million cubic meters per day of natural gas, as well as a 401-km undersea pipeline, the longest such conduit in Brazil, online this month.

The Cidade de Maricá offshore platform began operation a few days ago in the Lula field, located in the Santos basin's pre-salt reserves.

Petrobras discovered the gigantic reserves in the deepwater Atlantic under a two-km layer of salt.

"With this new production system, the pre-salt will now account for 35 percent of all Brazilian petroleum production," Petrobras said in a statement.

The Rota 2 undersea pipeline, meanwhile, started operating on February 12, transporting natural gas from some of the platforms in the Santos basin to shore.

The pipeline can carry 13 million cubic metres per day of natural gas.

Rota 2 will transport gas to the Caiunas Gas Processing Terminal in Macae, a city on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.

The terminal's processing capacity has been expanded to 28.4 million cubic metres per day, Petrobras said.

The new pipeline links up with Rota 1, a 359-km undersea pipeline that connects platforms in the Santos basin with the Monteiro Lobato Gas Processing Terminal in Caraguatatuba, a city on the coast of Sao Paulo state.

Rota 1, which started operating in 2011, transports 10 million cubic metres of natural gas per day.

--IANS/EFE

vr/