OREANDA-NEWS. December 04, 2014. BG Group (LSE: BG.L) announced the start-up of the Cidade de Ilhabela floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

This is the second unit deployed on the Sapinhoa field and the fifth FPSO to have come onstream across the interests in which BG Group is partner in the pre-salt Santos Basin, offshore Brazil.

The Cidade de Ilhabela has capacity to process 150 000 barrels of oil per day and 212 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas. Together with the Cidade de Sao Paulo, BG Group’s net capacity from Sapinhoa will be 81 000 barrels of oil per day. The Cidade de Sao Paulo, which started producing in January 2013, is now at plateau production.

The oil produced from Sapinhoa is high quality and of medium density (29° API). Gas not used for reinjection will be transferred to shore through the Santos Basin pipeline system.

BG Group has a 30% interest in the Sapinhoa field which sits within Block BM-S-9 (Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., operator, 45% and Repsol Sinopec Brasil 25%). BG Group also has a 25% interest in Block BM-S-11 (Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., operator, 65% and Petrogal Brasil 10%).