Petróleo Brasileiro SA - Petrobras announced that with the start up of platform Cidade de S o Paulo, on January 5, it has initiated the commercial production of Sapinho field, located in block BM-S-9, in the pre-salt of Santos Basin. This field has started its production ahead of schedule, as the
start up date considered in Petrobras 2012-2016 Business Plan was January, 13. Cidade de S o Paulo is a FPSO platform (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading). It is anchored at a water depth of 2,140 meters, 310 km off the coast, and is capable of processing 120,000 barrels of oil and 5 million m of gas per day. Well 1-SPS-55, the first one to be interconnected to the platform, can produce over 25,000 barrels of oil per day. Its production, however, will be restricted to 15,000 barrels of oil per day, until the commissioning of natural gas processing and reinjection systems, expected to last 90 days, is concluded. The produced oil, which is of intermediate density (30 API) and high quality, will be transported through tankers.