Bijupira’ & Salema: An Innovative Integrated Approach to Subsea Field Re-Development

The Bijupira' & Salema Fields were discovered in 1990 in Brazil and are located 250 km east of Rio de Janeiro, in water depths between 480 and 880 m. The field was one of the first to be developed by a foreign operator, and was also one of the first turnkey developments in the country. It started production in 2003, and in 2013 went through a re-development program presenting all the challenges of a typical brownfield project. It included the hook-up of 4 new wells, installation and commissioning of the production bundles, subsea control modules and hydraulic, electric and gas-lift flying leads. Production from 4 unproductive wells was suspended and some of the corresponding hardware such as production flexibles were decommissioned. The project also included topside modifications like the replacement of the master control system and of the electrical power unit, followed by the re-commissioning of the entire subsea system. An innovative approach was taken by the Operator for the re-development program: project engineering, marine support and subsea operations were delivered as an integrated project by the selected contractor, FTO Services, which brought together the individual companies already working separately on the project. This presented significant advantages for the Operator, because it simplified the interfaces between equipment supplier and installer and also aligned the schedule of the installation vessel Island Enforcer with the other support vessel already operating in the field, the Holiday. The close interaction and teamwork of the companies involved, together with the quality and commitment of the team members, enabled significant gains in efficiency and effectiveness during all phases of the project. In the Planning phase, the companies collaborated to develop a novel optimized installation method: simultaneous use of the Island Enforcer´s cranes allowed a simple but yet safe and efficient method of constructing and installing the well jumper flexible bundles. The resulting strategy eliminated the need for a jumper fabrication worksite, eliminated the use of a transport vessel and thereby the number of vessel-to-vessel heavy lifts, and eliminated the use of a large spreader bar and risk to subsea assets during recovery. During the Execution phase, the installation activities in the tight and congested drill centers of the 2 brown fields were completed in record time when compared to the original installation campaign. This was the result of significant improvements in the hardware design, as well as the selection of a state of the art vessel, ROV systems and tooling. The paper details the scope of the project and its execution, pointing out the benefits brought by the integrated approach and by the unique capability of the contractor to deliver the full range of integrated subsea services along the whole life of the field.