Brazil, Energy Transition In Progress
Brazil, a land with riches, is home to many of the TotalEnergies’ projects and is an excellent example of our multi-energy strategy. Enjoy an eight-minute journey across the country, from hydrocarbons to green electricity.
Brazil is emblematic of the Company’s strategy. On the one hand, we invest in our traditional, business of oil & gas, provided it is low cost and low emissions, to fulfill the energy needs of society. And we also invest in renewables to contribute to TotalEnergies' transition into a multi-energy Company. Our history in Brazil started in 1975, with operations in all our segments: Exploration & Production, LNG, Gas, Renewables, but also Marketing & Services, and Saft and Hutchinson. In 2016, we signed a Strategic Alliance with Petrobras.
And that allowed us to firmly anchor our E&P activities in Brazil, opening room for other development opportunities. TotalEnergies was the first international oil company to operate a producing field in the pre-salt, named Lapa. The reservoir of the Lapa field is a pre-salt carbonate reservoir.
That means that you have a thick layer of salt above the reservoir, which helps us to recover more oil. Today on the Lapa FPSO, we are producing 50,000 barrels a day thanks to three wells. To optimize production, we are going to develop the southwest part of the reservoir. This is called the LAPA South-West project. The project is currently being developed, with first oil planned in 2025.
Our Brazilian portfolio has most non-operated assets. We do not operate, but we partner with other oil and gas companies and Petrobras, which operates the fields we have invested in and produce in. Production quality in the pre-salt is excellent. Take the example of a Mero well: just one well can produce 50,000 barrels a day. The equivalent of a whole conventional field with several wells in operation. Our objective is low-emission production. Each barrel produced in the pre-salt emits just 10kg of CO2 equivalent. We continue to look for exploration opportunities that meet our criteria: low costs (less than $20 per barrel of technical costs) and low emissions (less than 19kg of CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent). That is something the basins of Campos and Santos can offer. Dracena is a solar farm that can power some 100,000 homes, preventing the emission of 5,500 tons of CO2 equivalent every year. Of all our projects, Dracena is the one with best availability. Also, it is a solar farm equipped with trackers, a system allowing the facility to enjoy sunshine all day long by tracking the sun and adapting the orientation of the panels.
This optimizes the use and performance of the facility.
Solar has become a particularly important source for the Brazilian grid. It has taken off in recent years. In 2021, we signed an agreement with Compass. Compass is one of the main actors in the gas distribution business in Brazil. We will supply three million tons of LNG per year to the Santos terminal. The partnership with TotalEnergies is fundamental for our business. A partner like that represents energy security, represents flexibility, showing that, together, Compass and TotalEnergies are a trustworthy and reliable supplier for any customer in Brazil. We have more or less two million trucks running on the streets every day. The potential to replace diesel with LNG represents a big, a major opportunity to reduce CO2 emissions.
Combining natural gas, in its transition role, with initiatives so strategic, I think is the right way to do the transition as a Company. Being an LNG supplier to the Brazilian market will consolidate our LNG position as the third main player in the world.
TotalEnergies wants to partner with the leaders in renewables worldwide. We are not only the largest developer of renewable assets in Brazil but one of the largest investors. Brazil has one of the best wind resources in the world, specifically in the northeast region.
It is a very constant wind in terms of speed and direction. Rio do Vento is one of the largest onshore wind farms in the world. The magnitude and the scale of the infrastructure gives us, at the end of the day, extremely competitive energy for our clients. The global footprint of TotalEnergies brings clients to our portfolio. The technical knowledge and expertise of TotalEnergies in other derivatives of the energy transition, such as hydrogen, methanol and SAF is also beneficial for our growth towards a multi-energy Company here in Brazil. Our ambition in Brazil to reach 12 GW with Casa dos Ventos will contribute to the Company's ambition in 2030.