OREANDA-NEWS. Platform P-55 left the Rio Grande Shipyard 1 (ERG-1), in the city of Rio Grande (state of Rio Grande do Sul), on Sunday (Oct. 6), after the completion of the platform's module integration and commissioning services and of the testing and inspections required to secure the needed certifications.

The semi-submersible P-55 is among the nine new units to be deployed at the oil fields in 2013, thus contributing to increase oil production and achieve the goal of producing 2.75 million barrels per day in 2017.

With capacity to produce 180,000 barrels of oil and to treat 4 million cubic meters of gas per day, the P-55 will start operating in late 2013. It is one of the world's largest semi-submersible rigs, and the largest ever built in Brazil.

A project that is part of Roncador Field Module 3, located in the Campos Basin, the P-55 will be anchored at a depth of about 1,800 meters and connected to 17 wells, of which 11 producers and six water injectors. Oil and natural gas will be offloaded from the platform over submarine pipelines coupled to the unit.

The works created about 5,000 direct and 15,000 indirect jobs and reached 79% of domestic content, mainly on account of the fact that construction and integration were done entirely in Brazil. The platform was built in two parts, the hull and topside, which were constructed simultaneously and subsequently joined.

The work done for the unit's hull were performed at the Atlantico Sul Shipyard (EAS), in Pernambuco, from where it went to the ERG-1, in Rio Grande |(state of Rio Grande do Sul), where services continued. The deck and modules were installed and platform systems integrated at ERG-1. The Sulfate Removal and Gas Compression modules were also built there; the CO2 Removal, Compression Booster and TEG modules, meanwhile, were built in Niteroi (state of Rio de Janeiro) and transported to Rio Grande after completed.

The operation that engaged the two main parts of the platform (deck and hull), known as Deck Mating, is considered the most challenging landmark in the unit's construction and one of the biggest ever done in the world on account of the weight of the structure (17,000 tonnes) and of the height to which it was raised (47.2 meters). The maneuver was carried out at ERG-1's dry dock in June 2012.

It will take approximately 12 days to tow the P-55 to the Campos Basin, when the procedures required to anchor the unit and interconnect it to the 17 wells will get underway.