Equinor and its partners have decided to invest approximately $9bn to develop the BM-C-33 project in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil.
Equinor will operate the development with 35% stake while its partners Repsol Sinopec Brasil and Petrobras own 35% and 30% stakes, respectively.
The project consists of three different pre-salt discoveries: Pão de Açúcar, Gávea, and Seat.
It is said to contain natural gas and oil/condensate recoverable reserves of more than one billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
A floating production, storage, and offloading vessel will be used to develop the licence, which is located in waters up to 2,900m deep and roughly 200km from coast.
The vessel will have the capacity to produce 16 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas per day, with average exports expected of 14mcm of gas per day.
The project is expected to start production in 2028.
Equinor country manager in Brazil Veronica Coelho said: “BM-C-33 is one of the main projects in the country to bring new supplies of domestic gas, being a key contributor to the further development of the Brazilian gas market.
“Gas exported from the project could represent 15% of the total Brazilian gas demand at start-up. Its development will also contribute to the energy security and economic development, enabling a lot of new job opportunities locally.”
Equinor stated that BM-C-33 will be its second FPSO in Brazil using combined cycle gas turbines.
Equinor, which became the operator of the development in 2016, added that BM-C-33’s lifetime average CO₂ intensity will be less than 6kg boe.
