Work on pre-salt Libra to cost $500 million this year

The consortium formed by Petrobras (40%), Shell (20%), Total (20%), CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%) is planning to spend between $400 and $500 million to exploit the Libra field this year. At this stage, it will conduct seismic testing and well drilling, and begin extended testing.

The budget was approved on January 21 during a meeting of the Operating Committee, which includes state-run Pré-Sal Petróleo SA (PPSA) as the federal government agent. Also in the agenda was the work plan for the upcoming years.

According to a Thursday (Jan. 23) release by Petrobras, the plans include seismic reprocessing of the full block area, the drilling of two wells starting in the second semester (expected to be completed by the first semester in 2015), and a long term test (the final pre-production phase), expected by late 2016.

Libra is the first pre-salt field to be exploited under a production sharing agreement (with the Brazilian Treasury as one of the parties). The reserves are estimated between 8 and 12 billion barrels.

Translated by Mayra Borges