Petrobras relies on a solid supply chain to put 14 platforms into production

Petrobras will need a broad and qualified supply chain to meet the demand for new production systems in the coming years. From 2024 to 2028, the Company will start up 14 floating oil production platforms, which account for a third of the global FPSO orders in this period. There’s also a considerable demand for underwater systems to connect such units.    

“Due to the size of our portfolio, we’ll need to capture the entire market. We’ll need more staff, more materials, and more resources,” said Carlos Travassos, Petrobras’s Engineering, Technology, and Innovation Director, during the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston (USA) this Tuesday (5/8). 
 
To meet this demand, suppliers must be capable of offering and implementing solutions for Petrobras’s decarbonization targets. “There’s no room for projects that leave out emission reduction,” affirmed Travassos. According to him, Petrobras has already reduced by 53% the intensity of the emissions caused by exploitation and production activities from 2009 to 2023. 
 
Ten of the 14 new units mentioned by the Director have already been contracted. The FPSOs for Albacora and Barracuda in the Campos Basin are being contracted, including two units for the Sergipe-Alagoas project (SEAP).  

Mr. Travassos also mentioned that the task of putting 14 units into production within five years is nothing new for Petrobras. “We’ve done this before,” he said, recalling that from 2019 to 2023, Petrobras put 12 PFSOs into production, increasing the installed production capacity to 1 million 700,000 barrels of oil per day. This increase represented 50% of the production capacity added worldwide.    

1 billion for research

This Wednesday (5/8), Mr. Travassos also presented the initiatives by Petrobras for Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I) during the event held by the Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce (BRATECC) alongside the OTC. The Director mentioned investments of USD 3.6 billion in RD&I until 2028, as estimated in the Company’s Strategic Plan for the period.     

According to Mr. Travassos, Petrobras was the world’s third oil and gas company that invested the most in research and innovation in 2023, with USD 726 million. Another USD 1 billion worth of funds is estimated for 2024.