Rio de Janeiro (Platts)--21Jan2013/412 pm EST/2112 GMT
Brazilian energy company OGX said Monday it has declared commerciality of its Gaviao Branco gas field in Brazil's onshore Parnaiba Basin. The well is in the PN-T-68 block in the Bom Jesus prospect. The company made its declaration of commerciality to Brazil's National Petroleum Agency, ANP, on December 6, 2012, but the news was only published Monday by the agency, a spokeswoman for OGX told Platts by email. In July 2012, OGX completed formation tests at the OGX-88 in the block. Gas produced varied from 170,000 cubic meters a day to 491,000 cu m/day, depending on choke opening. OGX Maranhao is the operator of the block with 70%. Petra Energia has the remaining 30%. OGX's sister company MPX, part of the same EBX group, also said Monday it had connected its thermo-electric plant Usina Termeletrica 1, also in the Parnaiba Basin, to the national electricity grid. The plant was connected January 19 and on January 20 reached its nominal capacity of 169 MW and is operating at test levels, the company said in a statement Monday. The plant has four turbines with an installed capacity of 676 MW and is situated near OGX's other gas fields, Gaviao Real and Gaviao Azul. It forms part of the Parnaiba Thermo-electric Complex which is licensed to produce up to 3,722 MW. The complex is a partnership between MPX with 70%, and Petra Energia with 30%. In January 2012, OGX raised reals 600 million ($293.83 million) to finance development of Gaviao Real and Gaviao Azul. There is increasing interest in the Brazilian energy industry in the country's onshore gas reserves. Following a long, dry spell during which reservoirs that supply the hydro-electric plants ran to critically low levels, Brazil has increasingly relied in recent months on its thermo-electric plants to supply electricity. Although the summer rains have now started, expectation is that thermo-electric plants will need to continue to operate because reservoirs are unlikely to fill up to normal levels before the end of the rainy season. The Ministry of Mines and Energy said January 10 that President Dilma Rousseff has recommended that a round for non-conventional resources, particularly shale gas, also be held in 2013. This is in addition to rounds already announced for May and November.--Dom Phillips, newsdesk@platts.com--Edited by Katharine Fraser, katharine_fraser@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Oilgram News. See more information at http://www.platts.com/Products/oilgramnews