Deep and heavy concepts

Extensive heavy-oil resources have been discovered in Brazil's deep waters, but technical barriers to producing this oil economically have, in many cases, prevented development. Petrobras? research centre, Cenpes, is working on solutions through its heavy-oil technology programme, Propes

NEW HEAVY-OIL production technologies—including long horizontal and multilateral wells, reliable and powerful artificial-lift devices and compact oil-water separation systems—could unlock the economics of a range of deep-water projects. In Brazil's Campos and Santos basins, heavy oil is defined as that which is heavier or more viscous than the Marlim field's 19-22°API crude, which has a live-oil viscosity of 4-8 centa-Poise (cP) and dead-oil viscosity of 400-500 cP at 20°C. Long horizontal or multilateral wells, produced with high-power electrical submersible pumps (ESPs), hydraulic pumps or submarine multiphase pumps, may help offset decreases in productivity caused by high viscosity. In ad