Slightly more than 10 years after its discovery. Lula Field has the world's largest oil production in ultra-deep waters. This impressive goal was achieved through a robust reservoir-oriented strategy to minimize risks and maximize value during the fast-track development of this giant field. The strategy used in the development of the Lula Field, which aims at attaining a recoverable oil volume of billions of barrels, is described in this work. The methodology applied encompasses four steps. The first step consists on performing an adequate data acquisition during exploratory and early development phases. The acquired data guided the second step, which is the implementation of pilot projects to gather important dynamic information and to anticipate profits. The third step is the deployment of definitive production systems based on robust drainage strategies, built under different reservoir scenarios. The fourth step is production management through the application of innovative technologies in ultra-deep offshore environment, such as water alternating gas (WAG) wells, 4D seismic monitoring, and massive use of intelligent completion. Seismic data and special processing enabled the identification and characterization of the reservoirs located under a thick saline formation. The drilling of reservoir data acquisition wells along with extended well tests was important to appraise critical reservoir regions and to verify communication between different reservoir zones. Extensive fluid sampling and advanced thermodynamic modeling allowed the understanding of Lula Fields complex fluids. Two pilot projects were positioned over 20 km apart from each other on this extensive reservoir, allowing interference tests between the pilots and new drilled wells. Afterwards, eight following production systems were conceived using previously acquired data and flexibilities to accomplish modifications into the project based on new information acquired during the drilling campaign. An example of this flexibility strategy was the empowerment of the reservoir team to propose a specific well drilling sequence and schedule. This allowed the use of newly obtained information from one well to the next, even in a fast track development scenario, in order to optimize productivity and sweep of the reservoir. At last, the reservoir management has already presented promising results related to the control of injected and produced fluids in FPSOs with longer production history. The steps herein presented allowed the successful development of Lula Field, which has nowadays seven FPSOs producing around 800 kbpd. The most recent FPSO started operation in May 2017 and is still ramping up. Together with the remaining FPSOs to be deployed, it is expected that Lula Field will reach a peak of production of around 1 million bpd. Such production levels were never achieved before in a single ultra-deep water field.
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