BG Group starts production offshore Brazil

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LONDON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- British multinational energy company BG Group announced Tuesday it started commercial production at one of its largest offshore oil and gas fields in Brazil.

"The Sapinhoa field enters commercial production only 4 1/2 years after its discovery, a further demonstration of the excellent progress we are making in developing our world-class discoveries in the Santos Basin (offshore Brazil)," BG Group Chief Executive Officer Chris Finlayson said in a statement.

BG Group and its partners deployed the Cidade de Sao Paulo floating production, storage and offloading vessel to the site for production.

The company said that its offshore development plan in Brazil includes a series of floating production, storage and offloading vessels. Peak production is expected next year and could reach 340,000 barrels of oil and 528 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

An estimated 50 billion barrels of oil lies off Brazil's coast, a volume that's expected to put the Latin American country on par with some of the world's top oil producers.