The Tupi oil field (reverted from Lula oil field) is a large oil field located in the Santos Basin, 250 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The field was originally nicknamed in honor of the Tupi people and later named after the mollusc, however it was also ambiguously similar to the name of former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It is considered to be the Western Hemisphere's largest oil discovery of the last 30 years.

History

The Tupi field was discovered in October 2006 by Petrobras. The former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the field second independence for Brazil. The field was originally named Tupi but in 2010 it was renamed Lula. The name 'Lula' means squid in Portuguese but also refers to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The upper estimate of 8 Goilbbl of recoverable oil would be enough to meet the total global demand for crude oil for about three months at the 2008 global extraction rate of around 85 Moilbbl/d. In January 2008 Petrobras announced the discovery of the Jupiter field, a huge natural gas and condensate field which could equal the Tupi oil field in size. It lies 37 km east of Tupi.

Reservoir

The Tupi field is located in the geological formation known as the Brazilian pre-salt layer, which lies below 2000 m of water and then 5000 m of salt, sand and rocks. The Tupi accumulation, in block BM-S-11 of the Santos basin, contains at least 5 Goilbbl of recoverable oil which could increase Brazil's reserves by 62%. This would make it twice the size of the Roncador, previously Brazil's largest field. Tupi is a sub-salt discovery—held in rocks beneath a salt layer that, in places, reaches thicknesses of over 2,000 m. The crude oil is an intermediate or medium gravity oil of 28–30 °API, which corresponds to a specific gravity around 0.88. The Tupi crude oil is considered sweet, which means that the sulfur content is less than 0.7% sulfur by weight. By 2008 estimates had pushed the total to greater than 30 Goilbbl equivalent, though Petrobras had not confirmed the highest estimate. These estimates were put into severe doubt by impartial analysts.

Ownership

Block BM-S-11, which contains the Tupi field, is operated by Petrobras with a 65% controlling stake while BG Group holds 25% and Galp Energia has the remaining 10% interest. According to Bear Stearns estimates, the value of the oil in the block ranges from $25 billion to $60 billion. BM-S-11 also includes Tupi Sul, Iara and Iracema fields.

Production

On April 22, 2009, BW Offshore and Petrobras let up the first crude oil from test well at Tupi field. The celebration ceremony for the beginning of production was held aboard the BW Cidade de Sao Vicente floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) on May 1, 2009. The president was expected to visit, but did not show up. The first producing well was expected to provide output of 14000 oilbbl/d while the second well was expected to produce 15000 oilbbl/d. By 2020, Petrobras expects to produce up to 500000 oilbbl/d. Full field development may include up to 300 producing and injector wells, with total gross oil production reaching 1000000 oilbbl/d and 1 e9cuft of gas. The drilling of the first 15 wells has cost $1 billion. It is estimated that the total field cost will come to $50–$100 billion owing to the complexity of the geological formation. Up to 12 FPSOs may be needed for full production at Tupi. The field produced 100,000 barrels a day (January 2013). The field produced 922000 oilbbl/d and 1.48 e9cuft of gas in 2021.