Shell is hoping to extend the life of an offshore oil field in Brazil's Campos Basin until 2021, potentially adding five years of operation and as many as 20 million more barrels, Osman Tosun, the company's field development manager, said Friday.
Shell on Friday spudded on of four new wells planned at the mature Bijupira-Salema field in an effort to extent production, Tosun told the Brazil Offshore conference in Macae.
"We are now very much in the execution phase of these four wells," Tosun said, adding that production from the field had declined quickly.
Tosun said production from the field is about 15,000 barrels/day, down from 65,000 b/d when Shell began production in 2003.
Shorty after the company began production, output began to slide, Tosun said.
Shell last year launched a development project that included transferring "Christmas trees" from other Shell projects in the US and Malaysia, and using them to inject gas into the wells.
Tosun said that while the work is being completed, there will be periods when production from the field falls below 10,000 b/d. "For us, this is a turnaround at Bijupira-Salema, so we think these is exciting."
