Petrobras brought the P-78 floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel serving the pre-salt Búzios 6 project onstream on 31 December 2025.
The FPSO brings installed production capacity at the Búzios field to about 1.5 million BOPD; in October, the field hit the production milestone of 1 million BOPD. The P-78 has capacity to produce 180,000 BOPD and compress 7.2 MMcm/D of gas.
The Búzios field, which Petrobras and its partners discovered in 2010, is in water depth exceeding 2,000 m in the Santos Basin. The first production unit went onstream in 2018.
The 345-m-long P-78 FPSO design was based on lessons learned from earlier units serving the pre-salt layer. It includes technologies for reducing emissions and increasing operational efficiency, such as an exhaust gas recovery system, the use of variable speed drives in pumps and compressors, and energy integrations between hot and cold streams in oil and gas processing.
The FPSO was subject to technical quality and efficiency requirements for the shipyards that built it. The platform contract stipulated at least 25% local content; 10 of the 23 topside modules were built at the BrasFELS shipyard in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro.
The P-78 arrived in Brazil in October from Seatrium’s yard in Singapore with the commissioning and operations teams on board. This strategy eliminated a stop in sheltered waters in Brazil. The Búzios 6 project calls for a total of six production and seven injection wells.
The P-78 is the seventh platform to begin production in the Búzios field, which is Brazil’s largest in terms of reserves.
Petrobras operates the field with 88.98% interest on behalf of partners CNOOC with 7.34%, CNPC with 3.67%, and Pré-Sal Petróleo SA as the project manager.
