Petrobras intends to enable the production of up to 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent in the main fields operated by the company by 2030, through a program aimed at increasing the recovery factor of the deposits. Named RES20, the effort was created by the company with a focus on incorporating new reserves into assets already in the operational phase.
The 20 billion barrels include not only Petrobras’s share, but also the volumes of Petrobras’s partners in the fields operated by the company. The figure, however, is nonetheless expressive. For comparison purposes, the company has produced 23 billion barrels over nearly seven decades of history.
The recovery factor indicates the percentage of the volume originally contained in a reservoir — the volume “in place” — that has already been extracted. In Brazil, these rates are historically low, in relation to what is seen, for example, in the North Sea, in Europe. According to the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), in the Campos Basin, where the main mature fields in the country are located, the recovered oil fraction is 15.8%.
In the case of mature fields, increasing the recovery factor means ensuring the extension of the asset’s useful life. Not all volume “in place” is economically recoverable, but by investing in the growth of the recovered fraction, the company is able to add more reserves to its portfolio — that is, more commercially viable volumes.
In a note, Petrobras highlighted that the RES20 will work with more well-defined and detailed deposit models. The company’s 2022-2026 business plan foresees investments of $2.5 billion in high-resolution seismic acquisitions for this purpose.
Among the assets expected to receive investments to increase the recovery factor are Roncador, in the Campos Basin post-salt, and Tupi, in the Santos Basin pre-salt.
Source: Valor international
