International oil majors and Brazil’s state oil firm Petrobras have just announced first oil from a deepwater field in Brazil’s pre-salt Santos basin, which will add 150,000 barrels of oil per day to the production of the second-biggest contributor to non-OPEC oil supply growth. France’s Total said on Friday that the Iara license in the Santos basin began production at a floating production, storage, and offloading unit (FPSO), with capacity of 150,000 bpd of oil and 6 million cubic meters of natural gas daily. A second FPSO, also with 150,000 bpd capacity, is expected to start operations next year. Total holds 22.5 percent in the field, whose operator is Brazil’s Petrobras, while Shell has a 25-percent stake in Iara. Both Total and Shell touted the start of production as expanding their already sizable portfolio in the prolific pre-salt areas offshore Brazil. “First oil from Iara is a new milestone […]