Prumo-operated Acu port in Rio de Janeiro state plans to install a 2mn bl VLCC for floating storage, Acu Petroleum commercial director Eduardo Goulart tells Argus.
The vessel will be docked at one of three berths at the terminal, which is currently used by Shell and Portugal's Galp to export pre-salt crude.
The floating storage facility is scheduled to start operating in the first quarter of 2019, and will be followed by an onshore crude storage site in 2022. Goulart said the new projects are in line with an expected doubling of crude exports, which are now at around 1mn b/d, in the next 10 years.
"Tankage benefits oil companies by allowing companies to produce and store oil, disassociating production from the immediate need for export.
With this, there is an optimization in the DP ship fleet involved in the oil export logistics, reducing the cost with the leasing of ships," Goulart said, referring to dynamic-positioning vessels used for transshipment.
The planned floating storage allows traders to consolidate export cargos from smaller independent producers. Shell Trading currently acquires all crude produced in the 16,000 b/d Atlanta field, operated by Brazilian independent QGEP, and the 6,000 b/d Tubarao Martelo, operated by local independent Dommo.
The offshore terminal with a current 1.2mn b/d of capacity started operations at Acu in August 2016 with Suezmax capacity, and has to date carried out six VLCC transshipment operations since it was authorized to receive the vessels in May.
This week Prumo signed a cooperation agreement with the Port of Houston that envisages the exchange of expertise and best practices.
"The unlocking of the oil and gas industry in Brazil must take place along with infrastructure investments. And the Port of Açu is in a unique position to benefit from new planned investments and from the transformation that will take place in this industry," Decio Oddone, a former Prumo executive and now director general of Brazilian hydrocarbons regulator ANP, said of the deal.
Galp and Shell are currently the only two crude clients at Acu, but the expansion is expected to attract other big pre-salt producers such as state-controlled Petrobras and France's Total.
Acu is looking beyond its leading position as a crude and iron ore export hub. BP, through its Acu-based marine fuel joint venture with Prumo, is planning an onshore fuel storage terminal to accommodate product imports, a project still in the licensing phase. BP is also involved in a gas-to-wire project currently under construction at the port. A 150,000 b/d greenfield refinery is planned for the port farther down the road, a Prumo executive tells Argus.
In October 2013, US investment fund EIG paid 1.3bn real ($596mn) for a controlling stake in Prumo, then known as LLX. LLX had been part of Brazilian magnate Eike Batista's defunct EBX commodities empire.
