Welcome to the new PRIO Theater. Indeed, this is the new show house. What is PRIO? Join me. PRIO is the largest independent oil and gas company in Brazil. A company that was born of people, results, outsmarting and being bold, and it knows the importance of supporting social projects related to sports, sustainability, or culture. And that's why we named this new theater. Our role is to produce oil more efficiently with less environmental impact and top security and safety. And let's talk about safety. Not very different than what we have in PRIO's platforms. In the case of emergency, follow our team's instructions. They're trained for this. This room counts on emergency exits. The room has fire extinguishers. Have a look around and find them.
Smoking is prohibited, both in here as on the platforms, and it is prohibited to take pictures, photographs, or filming. Please turn off your mobile devices. It is not allowed to eat or drink in the theater. Okay? So this is it. Follow all the rules so we won't have any interruptions. Thank you very much, and enjoy the show.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining our PRIO Investor Day 2023. I'd like to welcome everyone who joined us online. Thank you. I just want to welcome everybody and like to show you a little bit of our agenda today. We'll speak about our developments, past and future. We'll speak about trading, commercialization, sustainability, culture, people, management, after all of the changes, and then we'll end with a Q&A with our officers, so you can ask your questions.
We are not going to open the floor for questions during the presentations, but we'll bring you the microphone if you want to ask questions during the Q&A. Thank you very much again. Welcome again, and I'll turn the floor to our Chairman, Nelson.
Hello, everyone. Can you all hear me and see me? Great. Hello. Thank you for joining us today. My goal today was to speak about some facts of the company that you might not know very well. We interact a lot with you. We explain how the company is doing, listening to your suggestion, explaining our figures and so on and so forth. But I chose some details that might be new to you. The first one that I chose to speak about is how long people have been with us. PRIO has its own culture.
This is not, this is not a slide, but here it for you. We have a profile of people that we look for, people with autonomy, with an. who are determined, people who are used to work in teams and make decisions. So there is a barrier of two years. When people stay more than two years with the company, the chance that they will stay with us is really high. This is applicable both in office roles, office functions, and out there on the platforms. So we have a lot of the same people over the many, many years. As we grow, as we make acquisitions, we add more people to the team. That's how we grow the company. We increase our headcount.
But basically, the people who have a good fit with the company, if they like our culture and the atmosphere that we have at the company, they stay a long time with us. We are a demanding company. We demand dedication, determination, discipline, financial operating discipline, and the right behaviors. But the company is also a nice, a good place to work. It's a fun, a challenging, fun place to work. There are some curious Dated in terms of how long people stay with us. A lot of the people in the top management have been with us from the very beginning. Francilmar Fernandes, our COO, he was the best thing that came from HRT. Every bad company has good things, and the good thing of HRT is Francilmar Fernandes. There were some many, many good people coming from HRT, and Francilmar Fernandes is amazing.
Milton, the CFO of the company, joined us soon after HRT became PetroRio, and he's been with me for a long time, helping change the company, implementing controls, behavior, culture. Then Roberto and Emiliano, who joined together when the company was transformed from HRT to PRIO and over the years then. If I spoke about people individually, I would be speaking about many, many people, particularly the field teams, the Polvo teams, the Frade teams. A lot of people in the company have been with us for a long, long time, and hopefully, many people will cross the two-year barrier and will stay with us. Still talking about the good people, we look for good people. We give them room to grow. So far, in addition to having a very open environment to help us here, we have an open space. So that's what we've been doing year after year.
With the market up or down, better by selling or not, we have been growing, acquiring assets from other companies. This has been happening so far and will continue to happen. You know, PetroRio used to be HRT. When it became PRIO in 2015, that was a very challenging period, a very hard period. We had a gigantic challenge. A ny false step could hurt us a lot.
Unfortunately, we lost sound. Please hold. We lost Nelson Tanure sound. Please hold. Okay, the sound is b ack.
We wanted to focus on production. Sometimes we faced low Brent price moments, but we've been devoted to the company, and we spoke a lot about this. So I thought it was important to share with you our sense of urgency, discipline, dedication. Every day, we had to bring our best self to work.
What is curious is that from that period to now, well, we've been now working on solid ground, and the driver we have is the same. We have the same driver come to work. We are hungry to do the best, to do everything better. We check something good that we do to see if we can do it better, if somebody else did it better, that we can apply in oil or other sectors. So this is something very important that we talk about a lot. It's how we feel about working at PRIO. It's the same feeling, and the company is completing nine years. When you give everything you have, you know, you give your best, you're always stepping on the gas. I love sentences.
One sentence that I love is: Act as if you were in a crisis so that you will never find yourself in one. So the sense of urgency, give your best, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. These are absolute truths that we have at PRIO, and we've had it since then. So for a while now, the company has been on solid ground, but we continue to work in the same way by bringing our best self to work and with a cool environment to work on. On this slide, well, this slide was put on screen way before it should have been. What do these companies have to do with oil? What does PRIO have to do with these companies? And the answer is everything. These companies are excellent companies in their own industries.
There are more companies that we benchmark with that are not even on this slide, but we try, we look for excellence. We try to know what they are doing. So we have a benchmark program that we improve all the time. We always try to study more companies, to visit more companies, because, hey, every now and then, something that one of these companies does that is unusual and that can be immediately applied to oil. A number of examples when we think about first principles in an industry which does not have the most modern practices in the world in some areas, well, we can always improve those by studying other companies. So there are these companies. We have a program in Silicon Valley to study what's happening there in terms of artificial intelligence and so on and so forth.
So this spans from very modern things and common things and, all the way to things that could be improvements to PRIO. So we study companies all the time. Recently, PRIO was awarded a prize as one of the best companies, best oil and gas companies in the world. The event was held in São Paulo, and something curious happened. Of most of the companies that won, that were winners in different sectors, well, we had studied most of them. And by studying, I mean benchmarking. We visited them, we asked them questions, we saw how they work. So this was very nice, and this is a very important program that we try to do more and more. I'm sorry if I'm getting into Francilmar's time to present, but, you know, visiting other companies also applies to operations. We visit our suppliers.
The same training that they give to their own people, well, we try to see that, their manufacturing, their repair work. We want to know what they do. We want to know everything even better than they do, because as good as they are, sometimes, the Brazilian affiliate is good, but we know their business as well as them, and sometimes we get back to their headquarters. Oftentimes, they, we get to know. We get in touch with their headquarters so that they can evolve locally. And my last point, you will know this. Perhaps it's too small for you to see, but these are the acquisitions that PRIO made. Imagine we could go into a time machine with everything we know, the whole PRIO story, what worked, what did not work, everything that happened in the oil market, all the volatility.
If we got a time machine and said, "Let's replicate what PRIO did," if, if we could go back in time to exactly what PRIO did, because I know everything, would it be possible to replicate PRIO, to do everything we did? I'm going to be brief, but these first two are the acquisition of Polvo field, the stake that we acquired from BP and Maersk. Polvo is a shallow water with a fixed, not floating, platform and dry completion. It was the first asset of the company in 2014, 2015. Oil price melted. It was low for a long time. Who would buy this field? BP itself said it had no future. Maersk preferred to pay to leave the field than stay with it. Who would buy this field? Who would make it the foundation to build a company?
In that period, we were in a transition from an exploration company to a production company. That involved changing the whole team of geologists to engineers. Then we acquired Brasoil, an indirect share, working interest of a gas company in Bahia, a 10% stake. The operator was Petrobras. The field was not their focus, it was too small for them. And with a 10% stake, we were able to push forward and prove that many of our points to improve the field would reap fruits. With 10% working interest, we brought a lot of improvements to the field, and the partners were Enauta and the Canadian one, GeoPark. Then Frade, an extremely problematic field. There had been an oil leak, which had been a huge problem in Brazil for Chevron. It was a gigantic trauma for them.
There were serious cases of the passports of the Americans being held back. Who would have bought this field that had an oil leak? We first acquired the impaired working interest, believing that we would be able to convince Chevron to sell to us their operation. In other words, proving our technical ability to operate such an asset in deep waters, gas lift, and lastly, acquiring Petrobras' stake. And then we acquired Tamoio, which made a lot of sense. It's beside Polvo, but being obvious doesn't mean it's not difficult. This acquisition was a project that took a long time for us to find the best way to have a tieback. The tieback happened during the COVID pandemic, and it was practically on time and on price. And it was in the middle of the COVID pandemic.
Most companies took years to go back to the office, and we connected these two fields, joining the production system, removing a problem at FPSO and leaving one that was much better there. I'm going to speed up. Then we had the acquisition of Itaipu and Wahoo, something that for the big players in the world would be hard and challenging, and we are halfway the project. Very soon we'll get there. Then we acquired Albacora from Petrobras. It was a competitive bid. Petrobras itself was going through a change in their C-suite, and you can imagine the kind of instability that this brought to the project. It impacted predictability and the oil price with a lot of volatility, and we were able to close this deal, and then we acquired the rest of Tamoio, and we sold Manati.
So there's one way of looking at this. Polvo acquisition. Maersk, in the past, told us that we would need to abandon the field immediately. BP thought the same, and Maersk said, "You know, this field is a walking financial loss. You don't stand a chance." We said, "But we believe in it. We have a good project. We have the best people, the best suppliers. We have a technical expertise." Maersk did not believe in it. They ended up leaving the oil business as a whole, and they said, "This field is worth less $100 million at 40%." The answer was, "If you think it's worth minus $100 million at 40%, how much would you pay to us to take your place?" Long story short, they paid $34 million to leave.
If the operation is not part, M&A is not simple. It's not obvious. Not at all. You know, sometimes we wonder, how much is Polvo worth, knowing everything we know now? How much could we have paid? But instead of paying for it, we were paid to take over it. And, and after Brasoil, everyone wanted to buy that stake. There were four partners at Brasoil. It took us a year, more than a year, to buy individually from each one of the players, to then pool all within the field. Acquiring Brasoil makes sense, but back then, did it make sense? Hard to say, and the same thing applies to the changes. Frade. We insisted with the Americans for years to prove our ability, discipline, and capacity to operate the field. For these large players, more important than the value itself is the operator's capability.
You know, if they were accounted for it, it would be an infinite loss. But they found an operator, and they were able to take it over. First, we acquired impacts to have a foot in the asset. Then the Dommo deal. The Dommo deal, well, I pursued it for a long time. It coincides with the birth of PRIO and the HRT PRIO transition, and Dommo was the OGX. We acquired the first bonds of the old OGX that were defaulted. OSX and OSX-3 is the collateral. It was executed. The company, the Netherlands, was going bankrupt. We acquired the bonds, the bondholders giving us minimum time for the due diligence, but we have been studying that for such a long time. We were in a position of knowledge, the operation.
We acquired the bond, so we took over a failed company. We became owners of OSX-3, and OSX-3 had a contract with to Polvo field, which was not performed at the time. Dommo was going through financial difficulties. They were not paying the charter of the vessel, so the vessel was a creditor, owned the vessel. That credit became equity for the field. So this was super simplistically summarized. It has nothing to do with oil, and it has a lot of difficulties involved. I spoke about the operational part, and I'm talking about M&As, right? And in Albacora Leste. Getting a credit facility, preparing the company to be solid for that acquisition, having all the CapEx invested and still spending the volatility of the oil market, that was all very hard. And we prepared to buy both Albacoras. Albacoras—Albacora an d Albacora Leste.
We call that Albacora complication. We were ready to buy both assets. If they had gone all the way, we would have acquired it as always. And lastly, is good operation. This is the Itaipu and Wahoo development. So to end, my point is something that makes me very proud. Working at PRIO is really nice. It's very challenging, yes, but it's a good atmosphere. People are dedicated. We seek to grow all the time. Looking at other companies in the industry, looking at companies in other industries, the drive is the same. If we did a lot with little capital, and that's the story of PRIO. We didn't have any capital. Along this whole track record, we have a number of stories of difficulties that we faced and overcame, but if we did a lot with little capital, now that we have more capital, I get really encouraged.
We try to be open, and we try to talk openly with all of you, with everyone that approaches us. There are many M&As that we talk about that make sense, and you can imagine that this is possible, but there are many other possibilities. Just like these were out-of-the-box investments, there are many others that we invest time in. And yes, keeping it to yourself is part of the business. When the asset is good and everyone wants it, the first comer will take it, but many of these deals were direct and bilateral. So in a nutshell, have a lot of things to cover today. We are always available to talk to you, to have a conversation. When.
Our expectation at PRIO, when we look at ourselves in the mirror, in the morning, or when we look at one another, we know that this company that brought-- that this team that brought the company this far, oh, they're here. There are some assets that make sense, some assets that don't make so much sense, some, some assets that are unknown, some we have been sitting on for years, and eventually we'll get there. So thank you very much for your time. I think I spoke a lot more than the time allotted to me, but well, I hope you enjoy today's Investor Day. Thank you. What moves us? Good afternoon. Welcome. I'm going to go over a message very briefly. And actually, this message is summarizing in two questions that people frequently ask me. The first one is: What moves us?
The second question is: What is my biggest headache or PRIO's biggest risk? I want to call it a risk, because a risk sounds like something difficult to attain, but the question would be: What would be my biggest concern regarding PRIO? I think that these two things are linked, and it is exactly about this that I'm going to speak, about culture, about PRIO's culture, about how we implement this culture that Nelson spoke about. A lot of what he said here is translated in our culture. In other words, how we can turn deals, actions, businesses into something that is totally permeated or cross-cutting in the whole organization so that we all share the same approach and the same mode of thinking every single day in all decisions we make. To me, this is the biggest challenge, actually, to turn PRIO-.
It's the story of that book, Good to Great: How to Turn PRIO from Good to Great. I think that a great company comes when we're able to implement what we think is PRIO's culture across the organization, and so that the organization will live this culture. This is the biggest challenge. This is what we've been doing. I have been doing this a lot. I've been devoting time to this, of course, in parallel to trying to originate, emanating deals, putting pressure on Francilmar, "Where are you, Francilmar?" And so on and so forth. So this is what moves us, and this is our culture. Everything we're going to see today, I invite you to look at through this lens, everything that Nelson spoke about. And I think that this is the first time we're showing this in a more formal way.
This is what we try to capture on this slide. PRIO is made up of people, results, of not settling, and of being bold. This has always been present in all our decisions, and it will be present in everything we do looking forward. So we are going to hear from Francilmar Fernandes, and we're going to hear some presentations more geared to the operation. We'll hear about Wahoo, its development, when the installation vessel will get here. We'll hear about Albacora, the next steps. We'll hear about the next steps of Frade. But always in compliance with this culture, from this approach of people, results, not settling and being bold. This is what helps us overcome the challenges. This is what helps us make decisions at the company. We try to care for people in terms of their wellness, in terms of relationships, and as for results, we're pragmatic.
We're totally pragmatic. We seek results, solid results, accurate results. We don't settle. We, we never settle. The status quo. We always challenge the status quo. The status quo can be great, giving great results, but we're always looking for improvements, and we have always been bold and daring. Of course, in a safe way, within safety parameters, and in a way that will never put the business at risk, but we were always bold. We started with shallow water, moved to deep waters, and with Frade, an even bigger step with Albacora, and we're developing Wahoo now. So it's about being bold. And I would like to invite you to think about these presentations by Francilmar Fernandes.
The operating theme from this might be saying, "Well, this looks like a retirement speech." It has nothing to do with retirement, but I think that this is an important moment for PRIO. That's a moment when we'll stop being a few people with good ideas that were able to implement a couple of things. Almost doing things individually, now moving to a culture which is cross-cutting across the whole company, so that everyone in the company can decide and think daily according to these pillars. Thank you very much. I'll invite Francois Omar to continue.
Okay, so let me start with the operating side. Let's talk about the context. On the same note, as mentioned by my colleagues before, as they were saying, we are made of choices that were made in a timeline. So I'm very proud to see so many people together since 2015. So just to get into the operation itself, it's not a coincidence, because we've been here 9 years, since 2015, yes, and everybody is connected. These are people who believe in the same things, and they work really hard together. And there is a methodology behind it. We talk about culture, which are the pillars that have a lot of features behind it. But everything stemmed from a dream. We were trying to take advantage of the obsolescence in the industry and try to create value.
So we all put together a work methodology. Once you decide to work with a mature field, you have to follow like a mantra repeatedly, and this is based on opportunities, finding gaps where people didn't see opportunities before, and people thought that a field could be abandoned. We found ways of, you know, using that to our advantage. So it's important to find opportunities and find practical solutions so that we can do things and at the same time create value. We have so many shareholders inside the company, therefore, our relationship in the company is not of employees, but everybody is like a partner of the company. And this is very helpful because it, it makes us go even further. You see solutions, you execute, and you retrofeed the company.
Once you follow on that cycle, you are constantly creating more value for the company, and you retrofeed the system to generate even more value. I mean, January 8, 2024, we will celebrate our 10th anniversary since we took over the Polvo field. The field today produces more now than 10 years ago. This is very symbolic because. When I remember when I was meeting with the former owners of the well, that was back in 2016. So this is very symbolic, and this know-how, this knowledge that we acquire makes the operation even more complex, but also we made this decision to take more things in addition to just hiring third parties to have a turnkey operation or what have you. But we decided to do it ourselves.
So this methodology, together with the culture and the people involved, is what, you know, keeps us moving. And sometimes people say, "Well, this is a short-term project." No, all we have to do is continue turning the wheel. Just turn the wheel and make things move forward. Now, our operations team, they will talk to you about every single project, as you could see from the agenda. But just to give you a very short summary, I must say that Wahoo, which is, you know, the, the major project right now, is in its execution phase. It's already moving at full force. The most critical aspect, which was the vessel, we just made an agreement with McDermott, the owner of the vessel. The vessel should arrive in Brazil between, you know, April 15th and May 15th.
So once it arrives, we will then do all of the receivable and unloading of the ship or loading of the ship. That will take another 120 days. But just to give you a general overview, that's it. So after that, we have a choice to jump into another project in Africa, but that will only take place in September, so we have a window of opportunity even to do something else. Or maybe if there is any licensing issue, we have an interesting window to take care of that. So we're very comfortable with that situation. ABL, which is Albacora Leste, we have great opportunities. A lot of new things are coming our way in the next best months. You know, we've been gradually evolving, and this makes a lot of sense with our history. Nothing has been easy for us. We never.
You know, it was never a walk in the park, but everything was done, you know, very tight. But we managed to surpass every obstacle in terms of Frade. In our last campaign, we had great results, and this will help us create a new cycle of investments and increase production. So these are our major projects. Tubarão and Polvo are never left behind. Of course, the projects are not so relevant, but this is, you know, the cow that we try to milk more and more every day. And now, let's now be more accountable for everything we did. And let me show you what we have coming along our way in the short run. Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. My name is Luiz Longhi. For those of you who don't know me, I am the subsurface manager.
I am a geophysicist, and I've been with PRIO since 2015. I already working in almost every areas of the company, geophysics, and now I am a manager. What I am about to present now, as I, you know, name my presentation, is the Revitalization plan for Frade. So what I'm here to tell you? This is almost like, you know, a history of what we've done so far, starting from last time we had our PRIO day. This is a timeline, and this timeline shows how the projects work inside PRIO. We start with what we call opportunity generation, and this started approximately in 2020, and then we started in 2019. There was a transition period when we received the asset. So in 2020, that's when we started looking at all the opportunities.
We looked at all the data, all the information about the field, and then we started to draw up models to verify what were the good opportunities, what was the magnitude of the opportunities, what were the risks? In terms of risks, we tried to decrease uncertainties. Right after that, we drew up our drilling strategy based on those data and the work that would evolve into aerodynamics and geomechanic processes, and that will go, you know, through all the wells. When the geomechanical and static models, they allow us to draw up a strategy to build the wells. We received the drilling license in 2021, and so after that, the work became more efficient, especially in technical terms. In 2022, we initiated our drilling campaign, and in phase one, we drilled, as you already know, now, ODP-4 and MUP-3A.
And then right after that, we drilled an injection well, and we worked also with two producing wells and two other injection wells. And we also worked with the appraisal wells, which was a more interesting phase of that campaign. And between phase one and two, that's what I will explain to you in a moment. What do I intend to show you here? Well, I'll jump straight to the result of this revitalization campaign. Here we're looking at the production of the Frade field for the entire field. This chart shows all of the wells that were introduced during the campaign. And to the left of the chart, or maybe to the right of the chart, we see the different reservoirs with different wells that started production, and we see the increment.
That was quite interesting, especially for the N560 and N54X, the two most important reservoirs in terms of volume and reserves. Well, now, speaking a little bit about what Roberto and Nelson already told you, here, I would like to say a few words about the culture and how much we emphasize our pillars. What are the objectives we have for the project turnaround? What did we do to really turn around with all the problems and the liabilities we had? Well, we started by reassessing the asset, and we build up all the models for the reservoirs from scratch.
Even though we had some existing information that we acquired from the former operator, we had to start from scratch because we wanted to have everything we needed to be able to convince all of the regulatory agencies that we had all the necessary competencies, and the models were all in place to carry out a very robust drilling campaign, you know, also respecting the environment. We engaged in partnerships with high-level companies that had state-of-the-art technology, and together, we were able to work on that information and data, and by the same token, we worked to reduce all the uncertainties and risks in the area. All of that only makes sense if we talk about people, and people, of course, can only work well if the work is done in an integrated fashion, if there is total integration between the different areas of the company.
In this other slide, we show all the partnerships we have with important companies in the industry. All of them are high-quality companies, and they became our partners. You know, they're more than just service companies. They were not just doing parts of the project, but they became genuine partners throughout the entire drilling campaign. And we started working when we look at seismic inversions, geomechanics. You know, they were involved in the purchase of materials, subsea, in all areas. That's how we work together. This other slide shows the main outcome for the construction of wells. Here, in this lighter blue color, we see the average drilling days from the previous operator. In darker blue, we have the average days of PRIO's drilling, and we see all of the wells that started up, that started operation.
Well, as they mature, we started new projects. We. If you look at MUP 5, we almost built two two, wells, one pilot and one, producing well. And then we can take better we can make better use of our time and, and take advantage of the technology and the integration between the teams in order to reduce times. This is also reflected in the performance of the operation and the performance of the rig, which was quite high. This slide shows a summary of all the wells that were drilled. The focus is what happened after we drilled MUP 4 and ODP- 5. Well, the pilot MUP 5, the injection well, ODP 5, that was 54X, and the exploratory wells.
We see that the well depth is 5,000 meters, and we see an image of the subsea, which is quite challenging for subsea construction. We see a reservoir of 70. There were two wells that have been previously drilled, and we see, looking at the structure, that this is quite interesting because we could work on top of it. We prepared the model, we saw the opportunity in terms of volumetry and production, and we started working with the data we had. We had, especially seismic data, which is a data of acoustic inversion, that in addition to the geometry of the reservoir, the information also brings information on the rock property, permeability, whether that reservoir will really perform well, and will be able to produce well.
With that information, we build the well, we drill the well, and through some other high-tech information, we saw that it was not so deep, but it is in line with our model. The result was very good. We drilled 779 meters down with a net pay above 80%, and it proved to be quite well. Now, I will show you that 560 reservoir. There, there was already some wells producing, but like in the other case, there was some structural reports that said there was some oil that was not being drained well. Maybe it was not connected. Therefore, we started to study it, and we saw that we could have an allocation with the main purpose at the 560, but there were two other secondary objectives, the N 550 and 545.
With that, we came up with a good positioning to start producing with that pilot project, but we obtained additional information. As you can tell, you know, by looking at the hot colors, yellow and red, we see the best properties of the reservoir that coincide with the porosity figures that are depicted through this cylinder that goes throughout the well. The result of that drilling operation, you know, shows that you have the gross is 1,000 meters, 887 of net, and this gives 85% of saturated reservoir with oil at this layer. Then you can see here that this is ultra-deep. This is in tune with the geometry and also in tune with the properties of the reservoir. You see that two information, both information match.
One has a much larger scale, and the other has a scale that goes from the well and around the well, just a few meters in diameter. Now, looking at the two other secondary objectives, 550 and 545, we, we proved that there was a, a reservoir saturated with oil. We have no producing wells at that reservoir, but we had information from other pilot wells that had some interesting information. And we also got some information from the 554, 544, 545. It's saturated with oil. And now here, what you see in the picture is the 545. We, we already drilled, MUP4, and we proved the reservoir at this distance, incrementing area and reserves.
At the same time, we helped to collect information to get more information about that contact between water and oil, and then we had more information about our injection well, 54X. So seismic inversion versus porosity proved to be very well, so the calibration of our model at the end was quite satisfactory. So once we did that calibration, we were also able to notice, by looking at the hot colors, that there was good porosity, and this was in line with what we had in the well, but now we have more precise and direct information. Now, looking at the ultra-deep resistivity, we see that this reservoir was thicker, was thinner, there was a thinner layer, and therefore, complexity was much higher. So navigating through this reservoir, everything that is not red or yellow is the reservoir, which is in deep blue.
So we had to navigate inside to, in order to have a, a higher percentage of more than 90%. But looking at the structure and with data, with the N5P2 pilot, plus the injection well, we saw opportunities in this structure near to DP4, which is the driller DP5. We asked the question whether that reservoir will be isolated, whether there will be other reservoirs, or whether it would pay off to drill other wells. So we ran a simulation. We realized that there was an opportunity to drain another good amount of oil, so productivity would most likely be lighter than ODP 4, but even though it will be oil, that we wouldn't be able to drain with ODP 4, therefore, there was a great opportunity to drill in that area.
Here we see the calibration of our model between, you know, seismic acoustic inversion, obtained that way and now calibrated with the porosity that came out of the well profiles and already tested with the ultra-deep porosity, showing that porous reservoir is saturated with oil. And this is pretty much in keeping with the geometry, as you can see. It's important to talk about geometry because it allows us to see the thickness of the reservoir. We could also penetrate with water, oil contact, giving us a better idea of the volume of the reservoir. Now, we are now talking about 470. That was the Maracanã drilling. The well that we discovered was 511. It took about 1 meter of reservoir in a lower land, the lower area of the reservoir, but it was very interesting structure.
We looked at that with a keen eye because it would be important to look at the productivity of the well. Well, we drilled the well, we found a reservoir, and now we have the figures that I think you're familiar with. The secondary objective was to find oil in another reservoir that was N-565. We found 45 meters in the reservoir with a little bit of oil saturation. But like in the ocean, the structure was much higher and this was quite promising, so we could have exploratory well here going through that reservoir, reaching Maracanã. That was 470, and then we could look at the extension of the reservoir. So both of them will be able to give us great information that will allow us to move on and conduct further studies about the field.
With everything I said during the video, maybe I think I was a bit fast, but I have a video of what we did. A lot of information was used. We have petrophysical work. We also did flow simulations, material balance, and there are many, many works that were done. I just tried to summarize this as much as possible to give you an overall idea of what we did. This is a summary of what has been, you know, forecasted for 2022. Increment is 6% between what has been anticipated and actual. We have here estimated and actual, and then we have an increment of 13%. And you can see that the main well was ODP 4, and in 2023, we have MUP 5, you know, N5P 2, and ODP 5.
These were the two producing wells that posted the best expectations. What do we anticipate for 2023? If you do the same calculation and if you try to look at the same figures, we hope that we will surpass 50,000 in terms of daily production. Now, speaking about the seismic data from the so-called Maracanã, what kind of information we have here for you, and what are we doing in terms of our next steps? Well, we collected the data, both from the exploratory well 1, PRIO 1, and Maracanã North, which is the structure that you see in the picture. Now we are building up an analysis to be able to calculate volume and to also see how much of that recoverable volume we would have.
With that, we start planning how many producing wells and appraisal wells we would need to develop that reservoir. I mean, today, we are working with a range between 5 and 15 million of recoverable volume. And here at the top, and in a shallower reservoir, we see opportunities. We have an opportunity in Bertioga. It's this reservoir 565 that I mentioned before, and we also noticed that a 5-meter reservoir with oil. But we have a structure above that if we were to project those 45 meters in the reservoir in that to the structure up below, we would find an oil column that could be quite interesting. And for that, we would need to, to look at that through an exploratory well to see whether that opportunity can be confirmed, just as we did when we started exploring Maracanã.
We had, you know, well, 5-11. We look at the volume, and then we found 23 meters of net pay, and we would do the same thing in this reservoir in Bertioga. Here we see a seismic section when we were able to reconstruct what we saw on 5-11, PRIO-1, and PRIO Norte. PRIO Norte also found a reservoir. The area is a bit farther from the main area. Maybe looking at this is easier to explain, but this is more, you know, a reservoir that has a lower net pay when compared to the main region of the reservoir. What we anticipate is that line, you know, between oil and water contact in the reservoir, in the structure above it, we could have a bigger reservoir saturated with oil.
Now, speaking about the next steps and the information that we were able to extract during the drilling operation, I mean, we are looking at the quality of the oil that was extracted. Well, here, Bertioga 565, is a better oil, 17 API. You have 12% viscosity, and four seventy has almost 40% viscosity and API of 15. The reservoir, this is a reservoir where we have less uncertainties, but we are still looking at all of the information. The fluid analysis is being done at the moment in a lot more details. We are also looking at the rocks to understand permeability, porosity, et cetera. And based on these two information, we are trying to understand the productivity index of that reservoir.
Finally, I will show you all the other opportunities we have and the next steps we have, given all of the opportunities I mentioned. There are many others that were already in the portfolio, but we've been showing you all of that, you know, in the past years. Well, I am not an expert in pre-salt, that's in pink. That's a well that we wanted to drill, but this is a very complex well. We will go all the way to pre-salt, but that is that for phase three as an exploratory well. The same thing for Nuri. It's a well mature process, but certainly it has some risks because there are no wells drilled in that reservoir. But we are still looking at the feasibility and ways to reduce risk.
With all the information we collected, our secondary well, it was the 550, it was a well, and UPP. We call that Prospect Maresias, and we are now conducting the feasibility studies to look at another exploratory well here as well. The advantage of this is very close to the 545, where the region has a high structure, and it's in the same reservoir or DP 4 and DP 5 as well. Now you can see in pink the extension of Maracanã. I drew a line that is not filled, and this would be our Bertioga prospect. We are working in the allocation of another exploratory well to see whether the structure proves itself. At the same time, we want to look at the extension of the Maracanã structure.
511 is right here, PRIO one here, and North here. In this region, more to the west, we do not have any wells drilled, but we still have some questions about that extension. We are drilling in the same well, both objectives, both, you know, Bertioga and Maracanã West. We are also now looking at the models and the different activities to take a deeper dive and then have, you know, more data about volume and reserves. Now, I'll turn the floor to my colleague, Jean Calvi, who will talk about Wahoo.
Good afternoon, everyone. This is what we do at PRIO. Luiz finds an opportunity, he creates the opportunity, he generates the opportunity, and then a team goes after him to put oil in the field.
Then after I talk here, I will give the floor to Furtado, who will talk about the vessels. This is just an example of our day-to-day at PRIO. I've been with PRIO since 2016. I joined the company when the company did its first project and was completion. Since then, I've been, you know, an active participant in Polvo drilling, 2018, 2019, Phoenix, in 2022, we started Frade, and now-
. You know, at the conclusion of Frade, we will enter Wahoo in 2024. I'm pleased to be here for three years doing our investor day. In our first investor day, we were getting ready to initiate the Frade campaign, and back then, we talked a little bit about that project, and today we are concluding that project and delivering good results. We are very pleased with the results. You know, PRIO's team, Luiz's team, the team of, you know, involved in the assets, a team that worked for two years relentlessly to deliver such good results and sustainable results, I would say. Throughout that process, during the past few years, the team that brings new oil from the vessels, it's becoming stronger. We started with Polvo, Nelson talked about that, and Francilmar talked about, you know, dry completion, and now we are heading towards pre-salt.
The structure of the teams changed a lot in that timeline. Then you may ask how PRIO was looking at ABL, at Frade, at Polvo, you know, Tubarão. So we put together multidisciplinary teams per asset. We have a team focused in every asset, looking at opportunities, assessing it economically, and bringing all of the information to the table, and finally, we'll make the strategic decision to execute the projects. And all of that today is flowing quite well. And now I will talk a little bit about the Wahoo project, which is a major project for next year. It's a project that—where we've been working for quite some time. It's very nice for the Brazilian landscape. I'll start with the timeline. The timeline was divided into three major areas: wells, subsea, and the FPSO. So that's a reservoir that long showed.
We build the well, we go to the subsea floor, laying the pipes, get to the vessel, and receive production from Wahoo. As regards to the wells, we basically have all of the material in-house, the lining, completion, all of the procedures for the wells program, and the program is ready, and the rig is ready. And then we'll speak about the assets that we'll be using for the projects. We estimate that each well will take about 70 days. Why 70 days? At Frade, we did it in 45 days. Well, the Pre-salt is a little deeper, the rock tends to be a little harder, so the drilling rate is slower. It requires more time to drill. So we estimate that the campaign will begin in the beginning of January, and it will be done by October. Please remember that we still don't have oil in the tank.
Then I have to connect the well, the wellhead to the vessel, and that's where the subsea work starts. The subsea work at Wahoo involves three vessels that will be used in the project. The first vessel is the Pioneer. It's a light construction vessel that will install smaller equipment, Christmas tree. The Christmas tree in the hydraulic system, and we'll be doing minor work at the field. Then we have Genesis One, that we'll speak about in a minute. It will be launching the umbilical lines and flexible lines. Flexible and umbilical lines will be laid by Genesis One. And we have Amazon, which is the vessel that Francilmar mentioned. It will be laying the rigid tieback.
The rigid tieback will connect Wahoo field with Frade field, about 30 kilometers separating both fields, and this is, I would say, the most complex operation in the subsea work, which is the laying of this rigid pipeline. As Francilmar mentioned, that this is the vessel that we will be using, and have a window for its arrival between April 15 and May 15. So the vessel will get to Brazil, will receive the pipeline, will go to the field to execute the work. Well, I'll give more detail on the next slide. And lastly, the topside work that will ensure that all the oil, gas, everything that gets to the vessel, will be treated efficiently.
And then all adaptations will be made so that at Wahoo, we'll get the chemicals and the hydraulic material to operate the trees, to make sure that oil will flow between Wahoo and Frade. So chemical pumping is a major activity. We have to increase the pumping capacity of chemicals and hydraulics. So these are the relevant assets that we'll be using with the project. I removed Pioneer because Pioneer is a little simpler. So let's start with Amazon. Amazon was contracted from McDermott, who will get in Brazil between April and May, April 15 and May 15. It is, as we speak, performing work for Shell. It's the Shell Whale project at the Gulf of Mexico. So I suppose we'll get here on April 20. That's in the right window.
So 15 days to load, the clearance, to be cleared, and 60 days to install the tieback, the rigid pipeline. When do we have oil?. Let's go back. We expect first oil. We'll finish laying the pipes, and then we'll be connecting the extremities while commissioning the system. So first one was expected between end of July and August. It will really depend on the arrival date of the Amazon vessel, but first oil will flow 110 days after the arrival of Amazon. Laying the rigid pipeline, plus commissioning 75 days, plus 30 days for commissioning, so it will give us about 105 days. So this is the timeline that we are working with. Amazon is a rigid pipe laying support vessel. It is. It will launch the tubes that are welded on board.
There are two systems to lay the rigid pipes. One is Reel lay, and then J-lay. Reel lay, you wind the whole extension of the pipeline in a huge roll. In J-lay, the pipelines are welded on board. So Amazon is a J-lay. The vessel has five welding units, so we can assemble and weld six pipelines times six—times five times. So we always have five sections assembled, what we call a hex joint. 72-meter long, so every pipe has 12 meters times six, 72. So these 72 meters will go to the laying area, and we weld the 72 to the pipe that is already laid in the ocean. So simply put, this is the J-lay. Reel lay, you do it on land, and you wind it around a roll.
So the interesting thing is that our pipeline was designed to be laid in both ways, using J-lay or Reel lay. Genesis One, this is a pre-owned vessel. It's a vessel that PRIO acquired. This is already contracted in Norway. It is laying pipes in Norway. She will finalize the contract in the end of January, then she'll go to the shipyard. We will do an inspection, and then she will come to Brazil. The class will mature in 5 years. So the class was done this year, so we have 5 years of continuous operation without the need to dock the unit. Then she will come to Brazil. It will take about 30 days to get here. Once in Brazil, we'll install the pipelaying system, which is already in Brazil, and we'll start laying umbilical and flexible lines for Wahoo. So let's move now to the rig.
These are just some images of the vessel. It dates to 2002, but it is very well preserved. It will help us a lot in the PRIO project. Hunter Queen is a rig that was reactivated. We finalized its reactivation in September. We did the whole commissioning. We lowered the BOP. In rigs that are reactivated after long periods of cold stacking, one of the main tests is the BOP, which is critical for wells. Historically, this gives us trouble, but we lowered ours. We tested it 100%. We already did the first operation with the rig and then finalized the MUP 3B. We had slight issues, little adjustments to be made, but performance was good at the start of the operation, and the rig is prepared to go to work in Wahoo. I'll speak a little now about the design of the project.
So this will illustrate what I told you, how this is going to happen, the design of the project. So this is simply put, if I were to include all of the equipment, well, the slide would be too busy. But simply put, we have the production part, we have the wells, the Christmas trees. We connect the rigid pipe that connects both fields. So I have Bravo here, and I have Wahoo here. In the middle, I have a rigid pipeline. At the extremities, I have the pipeline and termination. So PLET and the rigid pipe. This is the part of controls and chemicals. In the vessel, we have just one umbilical with all functions, chemical function, controls, and on the sea floor, it divides into control, which is the red, hydraulic and the chemicals.
At Wahoo, I have the end of the umbilicals, the terminal part, and that spreads to the wells. So what is the status of all this? Regarding the rigid pipeline, we have received it. It's already in-house in our inventory. You see the images here. These are already the pipelines that are ready to be used. It's a metal pipeline, where we apply a coating, an external coating, which is basically a thermal coating. This will ensure that oil that is flowing will not cool down and get close to zero degrees, which is the temperature at the bottom of the sea. So this will ensure continuity of flow, even if we stop production for a while. So the green is part of the coating. These pipelines were manufactured in Minas and were coated in Espírito Santo, so it's local content.
This video shows the integration of the pipeline to the vessel. The vessel has a lot of particularities. Before it is laid, the pipeline is sent to the vessel, and the vessel sets up the equipment. The vessel is totally automated. It's a state-of-the-art vessel. It's very new, and basically, it is fully automated. So it sets up the whole parameters for our pipeline. The length of each pipeline is chosen, how the welding is going to be performed, the position of the welding. There are a lot of technical points that are observed and set up and adjusted for the project. Another item we have here is the PLETs. The PLETs are being manufactured in Espírito Santo by the EPC company, and here we have the companies that are helping us with this project. Shawcor for the coating, McDermott for the vessel, and DeepSea for subsea equipment.
The plet is the termination of the rigid pipeline, so we connect it to the first pipeline. In the case of Frade, this will be at Frade. We lower it, we anchor it at the bottom, and we have anchoring to continue the pipeline. In addition, there are valves that allow us. We have a project for a lifespan of 20-25 years, so we expect that we take into account in the beginning of the project. We have an option to launch the pigging, the pig risers. We have a valve that launches an instrumented pig riser to determine the frequency. Every two years, we pass a pig riser, we measure the pipeline, if there was corrosion or not, so the PLETs are prepared for that. This ILS is equipment that allow us to have access to the tieback.
Still, there are doubts about flow assurance, and there are a number of ways of ensuring flow. ILS is in case we have a problem of a clogging or hydrate. So we use this in case the other prevention means do not work. ILS also allows us to, if I want to connect something midway, I can do it. I can connect and access the pipeline. If there's a hydrate or if there's a new well along the way, I can connect it to the tieback. So the ILS plays different roles. We have three ILSs, and they are positioned. I'll speak more about that. They are strategically positioned, and I will explain why they are where they are. I'll get to that in a minute. Here we have the umbilical lines. Umbilical lines are ready.
The UTAs, which are these terminations or ends, they're ready, and now we are integrating the umbilicals with the UTAs. This is a process of connecting, running the tests, and make sure everything is ready so we can start laying the umbilicals for Wahoo. So we have these companies here as vendors. These companies were chosen based on our culture of not settling and of always doing the benchmark. Nelson spoke about this. We look for companies out there. We, we do a lot of research. Here are some images. We have a lot of things ready, a lot of equipment ready. This is a photo within a UTA. It's nothing too technological. It's a pipe full of little pipelines inside it, separating into chemicals, hydraulics. So it's equipment that doesn't, does not have a lot of technology in it.
Lastly, we have the most critical piece of equipment in the wells part, which is the Christmas tree. We have received some of them. They've been commissioned, they're ready. They're called models 2.0, other ones. They are the latest model for Christmas trees by FMC. So there's a lot of reliability, size, durability, all of that has captured lessons learned from the past. For the wells, we have been working a lot, remembering that the field has 6 wells drilled. So we look at what happened in the past, what we're going to do, where we're going to invest to avoid wasting time during execution. This was done in the last year, exhaustively. We got the best practices that are used today in the Pre-salt of Brazil.
Most of the drilling in Brazil is done in the pre-salt, so we have a lot of data, a lot of information, and we chose the companies that are knowledgeable, that are executing, that have a track record. During our hiring process, we take a lot of that into account. What they have done, where they have done, show me your credentials, and we take that very much into account. And an important process that we learned along the way is how to have integration of companies. It's not simply hiring a company. We need a strong integration. Basically, all companies that you saw here have people working at PRIO, sitting next to a PRIO employee. So they are a true part of the project. and our day-to-day is working closely together. There's no segregation. At Frade, this worked really well in the project. Here are some challenges.
A long tieback does bring some special points to mind. Here we have the route that will connect with the FPSO in the field. So we have the production route and the umbilical route, which is different. Why do we have two different routes here? Because the production route needs to have the least different levels involved, has to be continuous uphill. Wahoo is a little bit down compared to Frade, so we're going up. We had an inspection with an AUV, which gave us a resolution of 10 centimeters from the bottom. So we do engineering work to choose exactly where the pipeline will go to avoid depressions. Why? Because if we have a production downtime, the water tends to accumulate in these depressions. When you resume production, water plus gas, plus temperature will cause a hydrate issue.
So we have experience, because we have several fields, we know clearly how this can impact our day-to-day operation. This is already a lesson learned that we had. Choosing the right route is key. These are some images of Wahoo. We do have some depressions along the way. So what, what do we do? We put bags on the bottom to, to maintain the pipeline always on the same level and slightly going up. A very important item for long tiebacks is the rigid pipe. So we have less roughness inside production and flow is assured. The thermal isolation part, and given the distance compared with a flexible line, the cost is much lower. A flexible line would turn the project into something unfeasible. As for flow assurance, well, it's about prevention. I spoke about this. We have to have a well-positioned pipeline so as to prevent hydrate.
Then we have the chemical part. We pump ethanol and chemicals that avoid the formation of hydrates and the deposition of asphaltene and paraffin in the pipe, in the pipeline. So this umbilical is designed for this. These are the consequences of having a long tieback. We need a robust umbilical, and this will bring the need to increase the capacity of the vessel. To ensure flow, we have these investments. And all of this work is part of the project. Lastly, I'd like to elaborate on how PRIO, with its culture, derives gains with this project. We don't have. Why don't we have an EPCI? Well, because we can access a number of suppliers, we can have the capacity to change the strategy, even with the same vendor. When we have an EPC expert, the interface changes. Here I have just one interface.
Vanessa prepared this slide, and she included these hands together. I can pray, please help me. This is basically what you have to do when you have an EPCI. You're in the hands of the EPC specialist. But when we bring this in-house, we bring this layer in-house to PRIO. We have a greater interface with the vendors, the suppliers, manufacturers. We increase our knowledge base, and we can influence them. We can learn from them. With this, we quoted equipment which is 5 times or more expensive in Brazil than in the Gulf region, and delivery time of 1 year against the 3 months. When you see this, you say, "Come on, it's not possible. There's something wrong here." But actually, it is because we learn from our benchmarks. And the rigid pipeline industry is evolved in the Gulf of Mexico, so they have a lot of experience.
In Brazil, we have very little of that. That's where I have to work if I want to have a rigid pipeline. We did a benchmark on high tech, long tieback projects that are executed in the North Sea and in the Gulf of Mexico, and it's very similar to this. No one gives the car keys to just one person. Everyone is driving the car. They do break down services in those regions, and we're bringing this approach to PRIO because this will bring sustainability to our business. We can learn about the middle of the project, what's happening in the middle of the project. I think that PRIO learned that over the years, and we've been learning. We are developing this capacity of looking out and bringing knowledge in-house and turning this into reduced costs and time.
Give an example of costs, but there are a number of such examples, many examples. We would not have had the ability to see this if we were in this other design, because we would have just one EPC interface, and we would have limited visibility. So the lesson learned with Wahoo, in terms of a complex project, particularly in the South Sea area, is. At the end of the day, it's what I said, we have know-how now. We bring know-how home, or we reduce costs. We can influence the development of new equipment. We can bring new technology that is very much used abroad and not so much in Brazil. There are a number of examples of bringing new things to Brazil. But new things, but nothing that hasn't been tested in the field.
Rather, things that have been largely used abroad and tested abroad, and things that are not used here because of the way in which the industry was shaped in Brazil. The industry here was shaped based on the use of flexible lines. So if I'm considering a rigid pipeline, I have to look abroad. Why not bring rigid pipelines to Brazil? What's the advantage of bringing a rigid pipeline? It's faster, it's cheaper. A flexible has a timeline of a year and a half, a rigid pipeline, 8 months. So there are a number of advantages involved here. So it's something that we're trying to make possible. Well, this is it. This is what I have. Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. I am Luiz Longhi, joined the company since 2019. Luiz Longhi explained the subsurface, just spoke about wells and subsea.
I'll speak a little about Albacora Leste from the standpoint of the top side. We spoke about accountability, and I think the main point in Albacora Leste is exactly this. We had a work expectation in which this year we raised the bar, and we thought we would have a projected operating efficiency for 2023 of 86%. That's what we considered. Because of work that started in the first onboarding on July 5, 2022, I was there with two colleagues, and that's where we began putting together the transition plan. Given the scenario that we could comprehend, we imagined that we would have an efficiency, an operating efficiency close to that. Nevertheless, this was not shown to be true. We were not able to achieve at the expected time what we were aiming.
On the next slides, I will explain that with a lot of work, hard work, and with a very dedicated team and on board crew that was very prepared, we were able to have a positive trajectory, and we were able to start, open the door for 2024 on a different footing. I will show you that. I'd like to stress that it's not different than when we took over the field. We have our main work packages. We worked on extending the lifespan of the asset. We worked strongly on the power generation, particularly turbines, the water compression system, in addition, and water injection. And then we ran into a firefighting system that needed to be upgraded. We call outfitting, ladders, the guardrails were very, very rated.
Corrosion treatment with a large crew dedicated to that and an upgrade of the automation system, which started this year, and it has no deadline to be complete. We have a lot to do because this is a mature asset. Very well. So what did not allow us to achieve such a positive result? Well, we could divide the slide into three main topics. We had many problems related to power generation. We had a lot of problems related to fire detection and firefighting, and integrity issues, particularly related to the pipelines. So I bring you some photos that are quite emblematic. You don't need to have technical knowledge to understand the situation that we ran into. This is not what we have anymore, okay? But this is what we received. So we did face some problems that impacted our expectations in the transition plan.
This expectation was impacted because of problems in the fire detection and firefighting system, a track record of maintenance that was inaccurate. We could not really know what had been done, and we needed to do something. So we defined a methodology. First, Omar talked about methodology, what we need to have a working methodology for these assets. So what was our methodology? Well, we had an onboard team from July 2022, all the way to January 27th. That's when we took over the operation in full. So we decided to. We decided to break down the work into two fronts. The front that we knew that was cause, was called phase one. This work front is basically in line with the progress curve that we defined, and this has to do with integrity, equipment, procedures, et cetera.
Phase two, which is what we discovered in phase one. When I open up a piece of equipment, I may not be able to do everything I want, so I have to kind of program everything I need to do. Phase two was derived from phase one, plus some packages that were considered A.
So a brief history. We had more than 130 suppliers involved. Well, this was just dedicated to the recovery plan. 130 suppliers, more than 1,000 professionals. And of this POB, the amount of people we have on board, on board, people on board, we have more than 80 people dedicated to the recovery plan. So this is how we were able to, in the last 3-4 months, particularly in the last month, that we achieved what we consider to be a significant result. And how did we progress? Well, we revitalized the firefighting system, the power generation system, not just the turbines, but some generators. A large campaign for corrosion and outfitting and also related to safety.
We ran a campaign against drops, or what we call dropping objects, because in a unit with a lot of corrosion, we tend to have some objects dropping, falling. So we completed the first phase of and we also worked strongly, not only on the regulatory side, but also on the, from the perspective of the experience on our unit. As regards equipment, we revitalized the three out of the four turbines. The last turbine requires more care. We'll be ready next year. We worked on, on two gas compressors that were revitalized, which provide greater reliability. We started a great phase of acquisitions, long-term acquisitions. Many of these materials are imported. They need some lead time to be available to us. And from the standpoint of integrity, we implemented the preservation plan.
Of the 80 people, we have about 25 professionals working only on corrosion. We executed 181. We performed 181 repairs on pipelines, 107 related to hydrocarbons. This is important because this has everything to do with safety. Now there are some pipelines that are in the process of being manufactured. I show you this picture because it has certain symbolism. In a very short period of time, we were able to bring a very complex equipment. I mean, after a lot of work, and this is one of the turbines. We were able to replace one of the turbines. This is an idea of the size of the turbine in relation to the individual that is there. This is the turbine that will give us more reliability.
There are other plans underway, but we would just like to emphasize, this kit, it was found in this condition, and today is already operational, with the equipment fully exchanged and now is fully functioning. Still talking about the preservation plan, we have here some pictures that illustrate the before and after. We say that integrity brings about safety, and that brings about efficiency. We have here some pictures that, in our view, represent quite well what was the situation before and after. I have other examples. They illustrate the same point. This is another one that is quite relevant. This is an area where we have a trolley, the before and after pictures. And still referring to integrity, once you are going on board, even when you are still flying over, you see how the hull has changed.
All of that happened in the midst of a process where we are going through the learning curve of the plant. We were observers since July, but you only know how to pilot the vehicle once you become the pilot yourself. We were only able to see the actual damages once we were there. What was the plan for 2024 and 2025? Not very different from what we said before. We have to conclude all the improvements in the living conditions. We have to conduct the maintenance of a firefighting pump, and also, still related to safety, we have to strengthen and continue some of the works that were initiated in the firefighting space. In terms of equipment, we were able to revitalize three out of four turbines. This year, we will work on the fourth and more complex turbine.
As for equipment controls, we intend to work on turbines and compressors. We will also revitalize several pumps that are crucial to our process. We already started working on that, but this year we will pay more attention to the pumps, and we will initiate a second phase of major acquisitions. You know, bear in mind that the plan will end in 2025. As for integrity, I will draw your attention to the scheduled shutdown. There are some systems where we cannot operate in a more effective way while the plant is in operation. So we then use a scheduled maintenance shutdown to solve some more complex operations. So this scheduled shutdown will happen in the first three months of the year, and this has to do with integrity. Once everything is ready, we will be able to be more stable.
And finally, we would like to list our challenges. We want to bring the efficiency ratio that we reached in November of 86.7 to at least 90% efficiency ratio. What we want today is to focus on generation, to focus on the integrity part, because with that, we will be able to reach the goal. Okay? So that's all I had, and have a very nice afternoon.
Thank you. Well, we will have a short break, 5 or 10 minutes, just so that you can stretch, have a sip of water, and then we will come back soon. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. My name is Richard. I will introduce the development plan for Albacora Leste. I joined PetroRio back in 2015, and Nelson even, you know, presented a timeline of all of the assets that we acquired.
That was just a reminder of all the assets that made sense to our business. But there are many other assets that we assessed that at that time, they didn't make sense to the business. But we are constantly evaluating assets, and this is part of our growth. So as I said, I've been here since 2015. I joined PRIO as a reservoir engineer, and this year of 2023, I am now the manager, production and reservoir manager, and also in charge of process engineering. I work with the exploration geology teams. I work with the people in charge of the assets, drilling, production. So I work with all of them, giving them support and also helping them with the customers. I will start with a general overview about Albacora Leste. As you know, we acquired the field in 2023.
90% of the field was acquired in 2019. In 2023, and one of our challenges was injection limitation, and I'll explain that further on. And the field, the field itself, doubled the reserves of our portfolio by 304 million barrels. This, this shows the relevance of the asset. We know that API, the API of the 5 reservoirs, I mean, 4 of them are pre-salt and 1 are, are post-salt, and the other 1 is pre-salt. And our production. In November, ranged around 28.5 barrels, with 10 producing wells and 8 injection wells. And here we have a timeline of the results. of the asset, and everything we have and what we did until we arrived at this point.
In the first quarter of the year, we were just getting to learn more about the production of the wells and how would that impact the structure. So we learned and we understood how things happened in that asset. In the second quarter of 2023, with experience acquired, we then increased our production capacity. This was possible through improvements in efficiency and the production of injection wells. This also happened throughout the years until we have a definite solution. In the third quarter, we revisited the previously hydrated wells for production, and we increased the injection capacity of the wells. So there are two features that allowed us to reach that number, close to 28,000 barrels. And in the fourth quarter, we managed production and injection because we knew that we had to continue to inject if we wanted to continue to produce.
And so, at the same time, we monitor and control that part of the reservoir. And in the meantime, throughout that journey, we continued to look at geology, reservoirs, and that was important to create further opportunities for Albacora Leste, this asset, 340 million barrels in reserves. Therefore, we have to have further opportunities to increase production. And then for next year, for 2024, we will have the revitalization of the field. This slide shows in bars what I said before. In the first quarter, we just had the learning phase of the field. In the second quarter, we increased our production capacity. In the second quarter. In the third quarter, we increased our injection capacity, and we did the stimulation of the injection wells. Now, moving to the last quarter, we are now maintaining our level of 28,000 barrels.
This shows, as mentioned by Furtado, all of the hard work we put into it, you know, all the people on offshore and in the office, this is our effort to continue improving the asset. Now, what are the main challenges ahead of us for Albacora Leste? The water disposal and FPSO efficiency, also mentioned by my colleague. So in terms of the water disposal, I must say that we inherited from the previous operator an alternative for water disposal, injecting it in the reservoir. However, this brings about two problems. One, lower reduction in injection efficiency. That's why we have to stimulate the injection wells. And number two, the reduction in the taking capacity of FPSO. When this belonged to the previous operator, they did some water offload. So this is one of the things that we will not do, I mean, we do not want to do.
Let me tell you a little bit about the track record or the history of Albacora Leste and why we decided to change the water disposal in the reservoir. In 2018, according to IBAMA's resolution, companies had to comply with IBAMA's regulation in terms of the water produced. The water had to be disposed in the ocean. So they raised the bar and made it more difficult for people to discharge water in the ocean. In 2021, the previous operator could not comply with the requirements of the water produced, and they started to inject the water in the reservoirs. In 2022, the water reinjection in the injection wells reduced the level of activity of the wells. So that had to be fixed.
I mean, the problems have to be fixed through one of the alternatives imposed, and one of them was to stimulate the injection wells more frequently during a year. In the period 2023-2024, once PRIO took over the field, we already had the intention to stop injecting that water in the reservoir. We would continue to stimulate the wells while we waited for a definite solution, but. That involved some previous planning to solve the issue. So we hope that by 2025, we will no longer have that problem. We will be able to dispose that water already in compliance without putting it inside the reservoir. Well, why should we discharge the water produced in the, in the ocean? Well, first of all, because we have that loss of productivity of the wells, and we have to, to do stimulation all the time.
Whenever you stimulate, when there is damage to the well, you have to stimulate the injection wells, and this increases the maintenance cost. This also prevents doing water offload, because we do not reduce the capacity of the, the tanking capacity of the FPSO. You have to look at the capacity of oil and water, and you have to discharge that water into the ocean, and that increases production. And that also impacts the operating maneuvers, because every time you have to draw up a plan to increase injection and to improve production, you have to manage that all the time. This, this isn't something we want to see happening. But in the meantime, while we wait for a definitive solution, we are trying to sweeten the pill, because every year we have to sweeten the pill.
The first well stimulation took 60 days, and that was via FPSO. That, that put us in a very uncomfortable situation because it required a lot of logistics time, and we thought that we had to reduce that. And so the second attempt was through the vessel, and it only took 10 days. And that was a very quick operation and very easy as well. We will continue to do it via vessel in 2024, but we are already getting ready for a definite solution. In fact, we are running a test in the platform itself. We are doing some chemical treatment and using the physical improvements in the platform to make that water compliant. So the final test will be concluded in January. And here I have the schedule of the projects.
With starting in December until the first quarter of 2024, we expect to have the results of the chemical treatment campaign. This is the same, the same methodology. We use the same methodology in Frade with a great degree of success. So we can do that water discharge in the compliant way, and so we are doing the same thing for Albacora Leste. In that same quarter of 2024, we have five reservoirs. Out of the five, two of them, we already have the simulation and geological model. We are still lacking the other three, and with that, we will be able to create our opportunity portfolio. And they are about to be concluded. Then in the second quarter, we still have to continue with the simulation of the injection wells, to increase the activity level of the injection wells.
That's when we will conclude our opportunities for Albacora Leste. I mean, this leads us to the third quarter, when we are already aware of a well that we will revisit, and with the models, we will be able to confirm how we will, you know, resume the flow and what will happen to the water. So with all of the information in hand, starting in the fourth quarter of 2024, we initiate the revitalization campaign of the Albacora Leste field, and this leads us to 40,000 barrels net, starting 2024, depending on the Wahoo rig, depending on some other further approvals, and then we will be able to initiate the revitalization campaign. One of the questions I get is about Arapuça. In Arapuça, we are already making final arrangements with Petrobras.
We already have some defined scenarios where we are just missing signatures, and our volume in place is around 100 million barrels net PRIO. This is just an illustrative picture showing Albacora Leste and the part of the Roncador Consortium between Equinor and Petrobras. We are also discussing the production of this well, ABL-85, to be connected at FPSO Frade, and this entire production will go to Albacora Leste to fund the Frade. And the forecast for the first oil is in 2024, but it's still subject to approval by ANP. We are working on it and the approval by the consortium, because as this is a unitization, this depends on, you know, this agreement between the parties involved. I think this is all I have for my presentation on Albacora Leste. Thank you.
Good afternoon. Well, we'll now talk a little bit about trading. This is something new for this year. We decided to dedicate our efforts to something that, in addition to the reservoir and the development of FPSO, we have to pay the bills, right? Therefore, trading is responsible for bringing the cash to pay for all of these toys that we use every day. So let's go. Let's move forward. You know that our oil arrives in many places of the world. What are the vessels that go to these places? There are many questions, right? So to begin with, do you know that we have different types of vessels that can take our oil across the world? Okay. Panamax, Aframax, Suezmax, et cetera. In Albacora, before going to any of these conventional vessels, we needed a very dynamic positioning to having a shuttle vessel.
This vessel is very specialized. It maintains its position in the ocean using a system of propellers. With many types of vessels, we were able to trade our own oil all over the world in a very competitive way. Take a look at some of these ways. I already imagined that our oil traveled. Have you ever imagined that our oil has traveled to so many places before? Okay, that's it. Thank you so much. This is just a summary of an internal communication we did for our own people. Everybody is very much used to our, you know, production, day-to-day operation, and at times, it's very difficult to understand what we do in our trading area. Basically, this year, we decided to take a look at the value chain of the oil industry. We have upstream and downstream.
These are known terminologies, and this is just an illustration showing the different steps in the chain. This is what we are doing now. Now we are here, development, production, and this year, we are giving a leap into this, you know, oil value chain, taking charge of the beginning of the downstream change, and we are calling it the trading phase. The main reason for us to do that is because we wanted to be independent. We wanted to be closer to our customers. We wanted to have more flexibility. Everything we always, you know, aspire to have at the beginning of PRIO, we wanted to be able to do everything. So we are doing that same thing here is at this trading department. This is a snapshot from earlier this year that shows the complexity of the business.
We have a real-time monitoring system of all of our vessels. In this specific photo, taken in August of this year, we had 11 vessels operating and carrying PRIO's oil, coming towards Brazil to operate a vessel for us. This was a very bold move. We wouldn't be able to do that if it weren't for the huge engagement of all of the teams, the support team and the management as well. And then why? Why did we decide to make that move? What does it mean? Well, obviously, the ultimate objective is to add more value to our barrel, ensuring that we can extract the most value out of each barrel. But this happens with all of the options we have, and also with a lot of intelligence.
So naturally, the people in our team, people that give us support and that work every day in the operation, are those responsible for making things happen. When we talk about pricing, it's very common to talk about Brent. Everybody thinks about Brent, but there are several other benchmarks that are more common in the different markets where we operate. When we talk about the Asian market, we talk about the Persian Gulf or the PG or AG, depending on your political inclination. And then we have Dubai, a very important market for Asia. We have the WTI, very popular in the US, and, you know, data, Brent Ice. So we try to be very close to our customers. Therefore, we are free to choose the market that makes more sense to us.
Certainly, we will constantly look at our performance based on the main market, but pricing is something that is quite interesting in our everyday operation. Geography is also important, how we can operate in all safe and non-sanctioned markets. We can guarantee that the FOB net back or the value that we get back is, you know, top operating in all markets that consume oil. You know, from California to Japan, we covered almost all refineries and clients in the world, in the Mediterranean, you know, the North Sea, the Gulf. Geography is important. Being able to serve all of these markets is really good. Liquidity, having a larger number of customers. Brazil is not a trivial market for oil operation. Brazil has many peculiarities, therefore, this is a market of lower liquidity.
Even the West African market is another market that has a lot more liquidity, has many more players, and regulatory restrictions are not so severe. In Brazil, our legislation is similar to the Jones Act in the US, where you can only operate on the coast with Brazilian vessels. Therefore, the liquidity of players is not so abundant in Brazil. We also have some very consolidated players, but the market here is not so liquid when compared to other markets across the globe. As we deliver and we are in close contact with refineries all over the globe, we can reach different markets, increasing the liquidity of our oil. Information. We are looking at the market every day. This is not a screen market, but rather it's a telephone market. Information takes place through chat or messaging or telephone, direct information, one-on-one.
Trade happens through traders. You don't have like a screen or a real-time system where you can look at all the businesses simultaneously. This information here, as we are 24/7 connected to all markets, we can certainly collect information from different markets. Every new refinery, every player, and other trading companies, we can collect a lot of information and information that makes sense to our day-to-day operation. And logistics. When we refer to our growing challenge at PRIO, we are growing a lot. This is a company that is growing a lot. We are constantly trying to do our best. But together with that, we have enormous logistics challenges, offload challenges. When we think about maintenance, and Furtado showed some slides about that, all that intervention in FPSOs require that we are ready to operate with a good degree of flexibility.
There are thinking restrictions, data restrictions. You increase production, you lower production. And as we operate through the entire chain, we can certainly minimize cost, ensure flow, or have to improve the oil flow assurance, and by the same token, we maximize value. In the video, you saw all the different types of vessels that we can operate. Depending on the specific market, we use different vessels. Panamax is a vessel that is not often used anymore because it's not so economical. We have Aframax. In the past, it used to be a very popular vessel, especially in Brazil, but today is more popular in the U.S. Gulf. And in the U.S., we favor Suezmax and VLCC, the largest vessel in operation in the world.
We have a better capacity to operate with these two last vessels, but we have to consolidate them in operations of the type ship-to-ship. When we say that we are restless, that we never settle for anything less than, you know, our aspiration. The good part of it is that the refinery or the buyer on the other end sometimes matches our desire of working without the intermediary. So the buyer wants to be closer to producers, and the same thing goes for producers. They want to be closer to the refineries. Whenever we talk about low liquidity, these are the main players that PRIO sold oil to in the past few years. Today, we have a large range of refineries that we can serve with this new strategy. So we never settle for less, and that because we are so restless, we are making things happen.
So Asia, the US, Hawaii, Exxon, that is present in Europe and the US, Reliance from India, BP, Aramco, all the corners of the world are represented. Saras is in Italy, and these are all refineries that are present in all corners of the world. Progenac from Chile. So that's it. And now, this was a plan for 2024, but it was anticipated for this year. PRIO, because we had to operate with a DP vessel in Albacora Leste, we made a decision to hire a DP vessel in time charter. This is the vessel, Brasil Knutsen. Originally, this vessel was designed to operate in Frade. It was a ship built originally for Chevron. It was called Brasil Voyage, but it changed ownership, so today is with Knutsen. That's why we have a time charter agreement with them.
So having the vessel in our fleet, our operation cost is lower. We have lower risk, even though, you know, you're operating an asset, and I think the risk is having a top tanker in the unit. So having this asset, we can guarantee that the oil flow is insured. And autonomy and flexibility are two things that we strive to have. We are constantly moving towards doing things ourselves. This is a snapshot of a ship-to-ship operation. This is a Suezmax vessel, which was transferred to a VLCC. This VLCC needs two offloading operations to consolidate one shipload. And this is the result. We talked about being restless, being bold. We talked about people, and this is the outcome. The slide shows our progress this year, starting in the first quarter.
I think you well know that the beginning of this year was very challenging, but throughout the year, we managed to recover. Well, of course, I could come here and say that the discount was recovered due to all of our efforts and new strategy, but of course not. What we do with all this strategy is indeed only ensure that given the conditions, given the market conditions, because we are price takers, we can only guarantee that we can get the maximum value, given the variables we have at the time. So the heavy market throughout the year, heavy crude throughout the year, contributed to this progress in discounts. But as a comparison, Frade versus 2P, which is also a physical oil, the Ice Brent, has more of a financial aspect, futures contract, a light oil that has different characteristics when compared to Frade's oil.
We see that there was an evolution or a progress in relation to 2P, so we were able to extract the maximum value given market conditions. This was the result we achieved this year. For 2024, what do we what do we expect for 2024? Well, we are always trying to improve. As Nelson said at the beginning, we cannot afford to stop. We are making all of the adjustments. We already concluded the studies. We ran many simulations, FPSO Frade, FPSO Bravo, in order to guarantee that we can operate a VLCC as like the first port. This will allow us to have savings in one of their ship-to-ship operations. This lowers our carbon footprint, the risk of the operation, uncertainties, and mainly, it will reduce costs. Therefore, in summary, I have some freights as a reference.
So VLCC to China is $250 per barrel, Suezmax, $450. If I pay $1 here, I can still compensate a trip to China using a VLCC because, yes, gas is paying up. But when we talk about shorter trips like Europe and the US West Coast, the discount or maybe the savings I have with VLCC cannot be compensated by the cost of that additional ship-to-ship. Once I can operate VLCC directly in our FPS, so not only we will have savings costs, but we will also increase the optionality in terms of adding loads from third parties. We are building a world-class trading operation. We have very experienced team working with us. Certainly, in Brazil, no one else has such an expert people in its team, not only in Brazil, but also in our offices abroad. Therefore, this will be very good.
And the next step, just to conclude, is that as of 2024, starting in 2024, we will start negotiating our natural gas in our transportation grid. We will distribute natural gas, Frade, Wahoo and Albacora Leste are connected in that distribution in the Campos Basin. Bravo is not, because it's self-sufficient when it comes to energy generation. It consumes all the gas, it has no surplus, but Frade and Albacora are connected to the distribution infrastructure. So by 2024, we will be able to access that gas pipeline, which is that line in black. It leaves Cabiunas and goes all the way to Ceará, through TAG, and it goes to São Paulo, through NTS, and it goes to the south to TBG, and it goes all the way to Bolivia. This is the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline. This is a major progress.
Even though this is a project that operates with lower volumes, we can add a lot of value. We can add value-
. and we are no longer selling the gas at the foot of the well. So that's the message I have for you. Thank you. Now I'll call Carlos and Elida.
Hello, good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be with you. This is the second time I take part in a pre-investor day, so speak a little about our sustainability project at the company. When we speak about the oil and gas industry, there is definitely sustainability involved and climate change involved. In 2021, we started coming up with our emissions inventory. That inventory was certified in 2021. In 2022, we prepared our GHG emissions inventory again and continued to monitor our emissions month after month. It is with great pleasure that I show that in 2021, we had 31 kg of CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent, and in 2022, that was down to 27, and now in our 2023 average, we are at 22.
Undeniably, this reduction stems from the increase in production, which I would like to speak about two projects which were particularly significant for us. One of them was the recovery of gas at a Bravo new turbine that we installed in the Bravo FPSO, but we could reduce the consumption of diesel. That improved our emissions in general, and we had a reduction in costs. Coupled with that, we also did important work in the Bravo flare. With greater recovery of natural gas, we could reduce the flare of that unit. So today, our rate of loss of natural gas through the flare is very small, given the improvements we implemented in the Bravo flare system. So what have we done regarding that work front? This year, we created a sustainability committee for our board. The committee is following the projects and providing us with greater support.
We filled the CDP questionnaire. Our expectation is that we will achieve a very significant rating. That's what we expect. This will be published by year-end, and we are looking forward to the result, but we hope and we expect our rating to be very positive. We prepared and certified our emissions inventories for 2021, 2022. We're just waiting for 2023 to finish so we can certify it, though. In 2022, we released our first sustainability report. I hope you have all seen it, 'cause we, we advertised this a lot. Today, we are participating in the Brazilian GHG protocol program, so we were able to have an inventory that was totally certified by an independent party, and that gave us a gold seal in the Brazilian emissions program. What are the next steps? We want to formalize our sustainability policy.
We want to gradually increase TCFD recommendations. I mean, that's the next step to CDP. The moment we fill out CDP, and we get a good rating, we will increase the rating. How? By including, by gradually including and adopting TCFD recommendations. We started preparing a climate risk study. So we got the three main IPCC scenarios, and we are bringing those scenarios to our area of action, to the Campos Basin, basically. At the Campos Basin, we are seeing what are the extreme events that can take place in the Campos Basin, and we are assessing the ability of our facilities to cope with these extreme events. If necessary, we'll go through the necessary adaptations by improving the facilities or through emergency plans, if needed. We are implementing an ESG management system.
Today, we have a report, but a report is like a snapshot, so we are deploying a system where the ESG report will be real-time. So the idea is that the board or the top management, at any time, if they want to check our sustainability performance, they'll have the data available at any time, anywhere, to make a presentation and to show how we are evolving in the sustainability front. And developing a decarbonization plan for our operations. Now, this is a little broader than just decarbonization. We're basically talking about energy efficiency, so we get to look at all of the machines, all the equipment we have in our FPSOs, and we will improve the energy efficiency of these machines. But it also involves smaller works in our facilities and in our office.
So we are talking about raising the awareness of our employees to reduce energy consumption, water consumption. So that now we'll start using recycled paper, for example. We don't want to use white sheets of paper anymore. We really want to work to raise the awareness of everyone so that our employees will be aware, not just when in the office, but in their day-to-day life. And that's how we want to transform and work with our employees. I spoke a little about climate change. Another point is the social and environmental projects. I'll speak basically about projects which are conditions for obtaining licenses or compensatory projects. Our lines of actions are three. PRIOrity three. First, conservation of biodiversity. Two, sustainable use of fishing resources and strengthening craft fishing and environmental education. These three project lines break down into four projects.
One is the conservation of porpoises. They were at risk of extinction, so we are doing great work to preserve the porpoises, support marine research and fishing, environmental education in Rio de Janeiro, and this project is divided into two phases. We're getting into the second phase of environmental technologies and support the federal conservation units in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. We are ending phase one and starting phase two of the project. Here we have some photos of our project. This is basically the environmental conservation work. This is a photo of a meeting we had in one of our projects. You can see the amount of people who got engaged with our project. That's quite interesting. These are the conservation units that we support and so on and so forth.
We have a number of projects, including the National Museum, where we are doing some joint work with them, and this is what we call our main project linked to our environmental license, which is the Environmental Education Project. This is a reference project in the processes of licensing in general. It makes us really proud that we implemented this project. Today, IBAMA uses our project as a reference to any new facility that starts operating at the Campos Basin. We now have offices that stretch from the south of Espírito Santo all the way to Rio de Janeiro. Araruama is really close to the city of Rio de Janeiro, so it stretches from Itaperuna to Araruama. So we have 11 social environmental observatories monitoring the impacts of the oil production chain, using participatory methodologies such as the Theatre of the Oppressed and popular communication.
We now have 28 hired people, 11 coastal units, and more than 250 participants. This project is indeed a reference in the process of environmental licensing. We are talking about the compulsory projects, the conditions precedent for obtaining licenses. Now we are going to talk a little about the voluntary projects.
Well, good afternoon. I'm Elida, Manager of People and Performance at PRIO. If you were here last year, you heard me talking about Albacora, because I've been with the company with 6 years. I've been in the market for 15 years, and I started in wells together with Shannon Francois, and I went into production with Richard and a little bit with Long. And last year I was transitioning with Furtado with Albacora, and this year I'm in a mission. Part of PRIO's culture talks about that.
We are always on a mission, and our mission is in people and performance. To have a business strategy view in this part of the business, which is very important to us. So these are the social cultural projects. These are some strategic projects for us. This year, we will reach 30 million barrels returned to society in projects linked to sports, culture, and education. More than 40 projects. I will show you some of them. Here. This theater is one of these projects. We have an opportunity to host this event here. A number of plays are here, take place here. Another project is Todos na Luta, Everyone in the Fight. It's an incentive to boxing, education through boxing in Vidigal slum. We have Instituto Reação. This project has been working hand in hand with us for a long time. It's judo.
It's a project that started in hosting a slum, but it's all over Brazil. Another project is Art Rio, one of the biggest street art fairs in Brazil. We have Favela Brass, a music project that started at Pereira Slum, and it's all over Rio de Janeiro. It's very interesting. If you're interested in, in these projects, you can look them up in our website. We are sponsoring the Paralympic team. 11 athletes that will be participating in the Paris Paralympic Games. These projects make us really proud, and I'll bring you one of them, which I, I am particularly engaged with. To explain where this project came from: We work in an industry that is quite overheated right now, the oil and gas. In the oil and gas market, there is a fight for talents. All companies are looking for the right talent.
In thinking of that, and with this idea in mind, to teach people to fish and not giving them a fish, we have Instituto Reação Todos na Luta and SENAI working together. We developed a training program for people who want to work in oil and gas. And the big differential of this project is the social and emotional part that was developed by Instituto Reação. This coming Saturday, I will be there, attending one of the lectures. And the emotional part is really key, because when you go offshore, there is a psychological and emotional impact, because these people are going to be 14 days away from their normal environment. They go on board a ship, and they work there for 14 days.
If you have somebody who never worked in oil and gas, and you put them in this condition, they have an emotional impact. So when we give them this emotional training, they're a lot more prepared, and they can work a lot longer in the industry. To bring you some numbers, we are in our second edition this year. More than 5,000 people signed up. 300 people graduated, and they are available to the market. Very relevant. Last year, we hired 81 of these 300. This year's program will end in March. Of course, I personally follow the students, and we are already identifying the people who we are going to hire next year. It's very relevant to think about a project that helps the oil and gas market, it helps society, and it helps people.
When we talk to the people who took part in the project last year, we can see a change in these people's lives and a change in their families. So it's a positive impact for society, and that makes us really proud. Now, let's talk about the impacts we are having on society, on the environment, and I have here our social and cultural impacts. Now I'd like to mention the impacts we are having, PRIO. I'll underscore what Roberto said. He started this meeting talking about culture, and culture is the foundation for people to work with us. What is that? Well, at the beginning, he talked about P-R-I-O, people who bring results. The I is in conformismo, we're not settling, and O is ousado, being bold. These are the people who will bring the results to the company.
So when we think about that, we have some internal projects, very much geared to people development. These projects are based on four pillars. It is always to be dedicated to people, so it has to be zealous. Zealous is about safety, health, and well-being. Two, it has to be technical. It has to be technical development for people. That's a differential in our company. Three, leadership. It is the leaders of the company that will push people and raise the bar for them. And four, management. We need a method for the company to be sustainable. Thinking about the future, we develop people through methods. Internally, we have some projects. One of them is the PRIO Safety Cup. This is under our acknowledgment program at the company, and it clearly talks about the people who respect our safety roles. The other one is the Dojo.
That's a training area at the company that we are developing. It's focused on these pillars that I mentioned. This year, we started with the Leadership Dojo. The Leadership Dojo started in this kickoff meeting that we call the PRIO Ops. The Leadership Dojo is geared to people leading themselves, leading people, and leading the business. This project. This whole part of training sessions will continue in the coming years. And then we have the PRIO Way project. This is a project where we are elaborating a roadmap of all processes at the company and the connections among them so that we can pursue excellence. This speaks to what Nelson mentioned and some other people mentioned regarding the benchmarks. So we go out to the market. We look what's best out there.
If it's aligned with our culture, we'll bring to the company, and this will all be designed in the PRIO Way project. It's the PRIO Way, it's our way of doing things, and we understand that we're going to be looking at the market, we're going to be bringing in-house what really makes sense to us. Here we see a chart of our headcount at the company. This chart follows the growth of the company. So in 2015, we had 95 employees. Now we're at 760 people. The coolest thing about this that speaks to our culture is that 92% of the people who work with us are shareholders of the company. So people have a different view of the company and of the business. They are not just thinking about their wages, they are thinking about the sustainability of the business.
Another project that speaks to being zealous is the health and well-being program. This is a pulsing program in the company. For many years, we've been speaking about this, and the goal here is that people will be fully well to work and deliver their best. This is done through health, through sports, through a good diet, and a psychological work, of course. The project has 96% adoption in offshore. So can you imagine people working 14 days on board in a 12-hour shift? After that shift, they take care of themselves so that they will be feeling fully well the next day. You can imagine a crew of 100 people, 90 people will be ready, will devote some time to their well-being, and will be ready to work the next day. So these are some of the initiatives we have internally.
They range from the gym that we have, which is, by the way, we also have yoga, squash. We have Psicologia Viva, which is an online monitoring by psychologists, and we have the nutrition part. All of that to put people at the very center so that they can bring their best self to work and deliver their best. Well, this is what I had. We had projects that we deliver to the market, to society, to the world, and we ended with what we delivered to PRIO, with an impact that we believe is very relevant. And I am here to answer any questions you might have. Thank you very much. All right, and now we are going to have a Q&A session with the officers of the company. We're going to have some chairs arranged here on stage. Nelson, Roberto, Francilmar, everyone, please.
There are microphones in the room if you want to ask questions live. I can see some hands raised, and we'll try to answer as many questions as possible. Well, when you ask questions, please introduce yourselves and tell us who you're addressing your question to. Let's start down here, and then I'll go up.
Hello, good afternoon. I am Andre Vidal with XP. I'd like to ask two questions. Number one, you spoke a little about not settling. As always looking for more and dreaming big. So perhaps Roberto and the others could help, because perhaps you could tell us what is PRIO's big dream? How do you see the company five to 10 years from now? I'd like to explore the long term, the long-term vision. And my second question is about IBAMA. I know that there's been a recurring theme.
It's a concern of all investors. Now, going back to the short term, I understand that there is some delay, delay of drilling. The original schedule is not going to be delivered. I'd like to understand, what is your relationship with the IBAMA? What are your expectations? In the presentation, I understood that regarding the vessel, there's some leeway. I, I understood that was always the bottleneck, but if it is delayed, you have some, some flexibility. Perhaps you could elaborate on what you're thinking about the use of rigs, if the drilling license is delayed. Thank you.
Let me start talking about the big dream. Well, we don't have a dream of getting 1 million, 2 million barrels, 3 million barrels, and we don't dream to be a major player.
Our dream, it sounds a little cliché, but what we're pursuing is to be the company with the highest return that you find in the oil and gas industry, and perhaps in general. It's not just about growth, it's, it's about return to our shareholders and return to society. And this is our big dream. We want it to be, and to continue to be. Perhaps if we look back, PRIO has been one of the biggest return companies in the stock exchange, if you consider some of the indices. And our big dream for the next five years is to continue to provide these results. What can this include? It can include getting to 300, 400, 500 thousand barrels a day produced. It could to be a different number, where you have a return on your capital, invested capital.
So there are a number of ways in which we can achieve this very same goal of continuing to be the company offering the highest return in the oil and gas industry, and most likely one of the biggest companies in terms of return, considering all sectors. We're not an empire builder, producing for the sake of producing, getting to 2 million barrels. That can be a consequence. We'll find opportunities of high return, as we have been doing. A goo d part of the company's story has to do with capital allocation, and to be a good capital allocator is important, and it is a relevant part of our dream. Would you like to add anything?
I'd like to add something.
The dream was never to be the largest, but the best in terms of returns, people, the practices, always learning from other companies to see what works, what does not work. When we started, we produced 6,000 barrels and we dreamed of 100,000. We had the 6,000 barrels that were not pointing up, they were pointing downward because we were at Polvo. The expectations of everyone were not good, but we had good expectations, and we wanted to have good barrels. There are the economic barrels and the non-economic barrels. If with 6,000, we dreamed of 100,000, I tell you, we want to be the best at doing the right thing with the best practices, safety for our people, and definitely to continue to grow in a profitable way, but growing.
All of the opportunities that came to us, we seized them, and we created many opportunities. Speaking about what we saw here, and I, I have probably talked with each and every one of you in person. We have two licenses that we need to install to produce development at Wahoo. One is the drilling license, the other one is the approval or a license for pipelaying. We always say that the drilling license needed to be issued before, because it's longer work. But it's the work that we hold the-- we hold the rig. The Hunter Queen is ours. So of course, if it is delayed, the rig will be idle for a while, but that does not entail great problems. We got licensed in January, so it's not what we were expecting. It, it was not.
In the past, when we were expecting Wahoo's first oil in July, our license would be issued in November, so that in June we would have 4 wells drilled. We are now adjusting this business for a license to come in January. With this, we would have 3 wells drilled for the start-up of production at Wahoo. That should happen between mid-July and mid-August. The other license, which is for pipelaying, I always said that this is a simpler license, but it is a very important license for us because the vessel that will be laying the pipelines, Amazon, is a very specific vessel, it has work to do everywhere in the world, so that license is critical. I always said that we were expecting this license along the month of February to start working in March. We adapted that a little to be conservative.
So we expect the vessel to get to Brazil by April fifteenth. From April fifteenth to May fifteenth. So we would need this license by April the fifteenth. So giving it more time to obtain the license, considering what is happening with the drilling license, that is taking a little longer than expected. The good news about this business is that this vessel, Amazon, has some idle time between our project and her next work, which will take place in Africa. So in the worst-case scenario, if the license is delayed even further, we can make a contract adjustment with this vessel. This has not been defined, but we know that there, there is some leeway that we can use in case of further delay. So yes, obtaining the license is a little harder than we expected, than we imagined.
At IBAMA, we always had, and we will continue to have a good communication with them. There's no specific issue to say, "Oh, this is not gonna be obtained. This is not gonna happen." Nothing of that sort. It's just the process. IBAMA claims that they are understaffed.
They've been trying to hire more people, but we understand that they have a limitation, a staff limitation. They're understaffed, but they're working with a lot of goodwill for us to get the license, and we're providing them with all of the informatio n. So there's no hurdle. This license is difficult or something of that sort. Nothing of that sort. But you could see first oil with three wells between July and August. That takes into account the delay in obtaining the license. Just to give a little bit more color, it's not an old license. It's something that we have already submitted to the agency for over a year. It had its. You know, it came back and forth, back and forth, but now it's the final phase.
Today, they are analyzing the final documentation, so it may be issued in a shorter period of time, or it may take longer, but on the other hand, we have total independence with the rig, and so the timing could vary, and we would then compensate in the execution phase. So I would say, I would say that things are under control.
Good afternoon. I'm Pedro Suarez from BTG. I think the first question is about this fact that you don't want to be bigger, but better. So what are the metrics that you've been utilizing to prevent that this capital is not allocated in a bad way, as it was in the past?
I think Nelson said at the beginning that the company was capable of making some very complex M&As when you didn't even have capital or that much capital, and now you could do that with more available capital. So my concern, and I think everybody else's concern, is probably quality type of assets or return metrics and things that you could share with us to help us put things into perspective. And a follow-up is about Wahoo. Just to clarify, I mean, until April, you feel comfortable enough that you will be able to comply with the first oil plan for August. And in the worst-case scenario, in case you cannot get the technical license, could you please tell us what would be your second priority, whether you would take Hunter Queen to Albacora or Frade? What would be, you know, the option?
Thank you, Pedro.
In terms of returns, I often say that in our business, we look for investments of 20%-20% return unleveraged. So we look for offshore investments because that's what we know how to do, and in Brazil, because of the synergies. Yeah, and, I mean, there is nothing more than that. So, how do we, how should we be measured? Return on invested capital. This is the return that we deliver to our shareholders. I mean, whatever you want to look at it, you know, earnings per share or whatever. New projects, we already talked a lot about it. I think there are some geographies that could make sense and some others that make no sense. Like the Brazilian geography has its difficulties. It's difficult to operate here. It's not everybody that can do it, and we can operate it well.
We know what it's all about and how to do it, but it's not everybody that lands here and that can operate easily. Therefore, we think that it will probably be difficult for us to operate in some geographies, like West Africa, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina. I mean, it's, it's not easy. There are some other regions that are more positive, like the Gulf of Mexico. They have the adequate conditions. There are lots of suppliers. If you want to engage in any project, things are much easier, but it's heavily arbitrated, and then you go back to that 20% return. So we always look at growth, growth within these parameters and in jurisdictions that are almost like ours or better than ours. But the issue is that sometimes you go to a different jurisdiction, and then you bump into the return issue. That's it.
I mean, basically, that's it. In terms of plan B, what do we have? Today, all of our efforts are in Wahoo. Of course, we could. I mean, you saw that at Frade, we have three discoveries. We have to do the appraisal, and now, you know, Maracanã, now the focus is Bertioga. I have Maracanã, Bertioga, and there is another one. Which one? Maresias, yeah. All of the beach names of beaches in the, in the São Paulo coastline, and then we have Paru and Anuri. These are prospects. We would have things to do in Frade, things that are related to prospect, discovery, and development. A lot of things are still in Albacora. We are now, you know, reassessing the wells, et cetera. But there is something else. Would it make sense for us to interrupt Wahoo's licensing and do something halfway through?. I don't know.
I think we have to have a big setback in Wahoo to make it, to make it sense for us to say, "Let's stop Wahoo and do something else." What we've seen in terms of IBAMA, they are working one product at a time, one project at a time. This is what is happening in our case. We asked the agency to stop with Frade, because we were asking for something related to Frade, and we said, "Okay, stop looking at Frade, and let's focus a hundred percent in Wahoo." So my view is that there is a lot of work to be done, but I still believe that in terms of what is more logical for the company, now that we are at Wahoo, we have to go all the way to the end without, you know, putting too much stress in the process.
Unless we have a huge setback that I cannot have visibility for today. There's no visibility today. Let me just add something else. I think the focal point here is that the company today has a certain number of projects that allows us to manage our portfolio. We have a very mature project in Wahoo. We have a huge, you know, maturity project in Albacora Leste. We are generating lots of opportunities following the same methodology to create value in mature assets. So our plan today for reserve certification, you know, asset life, we—that will lead us to some improvements in the next 6-8 months, and this will generate a whole set of projects for, you know, injection wells, et cetera. As for Frade, there are still a few things in the pipeline, and there is also Tubarão Martelo.
Today, we are building some internal capacity because we have rigs, we have vessels, we have subsea capacity, and we are becoming experts in having more autonomy and flexibility to move everything near, nearby. In the future, we will be able to manage our portfolio and at the same time, make adjustments to the sequence, you know, in order to generate more value to the company. We seek for returns, but every business has to be good for the other party involved. Throughout the years, all the M&As we did, I mean, we were good partners. We played our part well. Therefore, I believe that, you know, because of that, we have a very good relationship with these companies. It will depend on some particular circumstances that, due to the operating capacity, this may have a way. But all companies are very intelligent.
It has to be good for all parties involved all the time.
This is Gabriel Barra from Citi. Thank you for the presentation. I just have a very quick follow-up in terms of capital allocation. This is a topic that we haven't mentioned a lot, and since Nelson is here, I would like to ask his view about the dividend payout policy, or maybe you have something more formal, or whether it would make sense or it wouldn't make sense. You know, even if we look at this very strong cash generation that is coming in the next quarters. The second point is about Wahoo. In the last conference call, we were talking about the arbitration process, and that represented a decisive step in the process. We didn't talk much about it, so if you could please elaborate a little bit more about it.
I have another last question. We haven't talked much about USV. You acquired another vessel, and I think this is in line with the fact that you don't want to be so dependent on suppliers. We talked a lot about CapEx. What would be your, you know, modification cost of that vessel? Maybe that should be. There should be a cost involved. So if you could talk a little bit about that. And for that, USV, given that the market is tighter, about-- what about the pricing of the company? And maybe you could use that in other projects, or whether you would have enough projects to fill our capacity for the coming years.
Let me just say one thing. This is not a USV. We acquired a PLSV or LCV. It's VLCV, it's LCV. It's a light construction vessel. LCV. It's already made.
You don't have to do anything. On dividend, dividend policy, the answer is no. In terms of seeking for assets that create return, this is the work we do. This is what we do all the time. We look for assets all the time. There are some that we look for, and they have to generate results for the company during stress scenarios. I mean, it's not when everything is working. We'd have to cheer for the best, but be prepared for the worst. You know, if that fits into our operating capacity, then we do something about it, because many of our investments generated much higher returns. So we are not thinking about having a dividend payout policy.
In a volatile market, it's always good to have a very sound cushion, because oil prices, the only thing that you can do is to have a very low lifting cost. But it will vary, because when every time people think it will go up, it goes down. We have demonstrated that very clearly. When everyone thinks it's gonna go down, it goes up. There will always be good capital allocation. Sometimes they take some time. You have to go through cycles, and you have to prepare when it's bad or when it's worse for some. If you got prepared, it's not so bad for you. But there are a lot of good things, but that demands time, that takes time. There are a lot of good allocation, and we've been doing that, you know, to this date.
I just have another information about the vessel and what's behind it. We've been learning with time that having independence and flexibility is a game changer, and we see that as the acquisition of these strategic assets as a hedging program. Even though I incur expenses here, I incur expenses. The acquisition of the vessel that will allow us to install are two major items that will allow us to go through our projects, and one is the construction of the wells, and we need the rig. Another important thing is the vessel that will do, you know, subsea interventions and will control the wells in our production units. So the vessel was acquired in that Wahoo project. This is CapEx. We talked about that last time, and something sacred for us, there are no changes.
They already asked me about inflation. They already asked me about price pressure. I mean, our life, ever since we started, is to constantly find safe solutions that can bring about results. So this is part of what we do, finding solutions. And the life of the vessel and, you know, assuming the integration of the process and trading, et cetera, everything we do means that we have to do things in-house. I know that it takes greater effort, but it's the best solution. This will not impact in any additional CapEx. On the contrary, it will help to lower the CapEx of this project. And there is something else, which are the next projects that will help us a lot. We'll be able to act faster, we will be able to anticipate.
Even Frade alone, when we got a vessel that was chartered, and we changed that into a delivery, we were able to deliver more than double the wells that were scheduled. IBAMA? I think you missed that part. The last moves happened yesterday. Well, soon, at the end of November. And with that, the case is closed, and we have approximately 120 days to make a decision. About 120 days for a decision, and this places in March of next year. Our expectation remains good. The ongoing debate is whether the amount of information that we submitted and the quality of the information. I mean, in terms of that, we are very comfortable because we just followed market practices and even went beyond that.
But today, we just have to sit and wait a while until we get the final response. I cannot say anything beyond that. I think the only thing there is, is that there is more or less a date that should fall between the first and the second quarter of next year. Well, certainly that for us, the sooner, the better. I still suggest that you do the math, taking into account the statement and the partners, just because, you know, we want to be conservative. It's not because we didn't perform well. I think the arbitration went quite well, but I think we have to be conservative right now and just wait until March.
Good afternoon. I'm Bra from Bradesco BBI . That's a great event. Very well organized, as usual. When do you think we would see the flow rates of Frade in phase two?
When you will be able to disclose the flow rates to the market? And the second question is about Wahoo, the tieback. In what projects you find inspiration in the Gulf of Mexico, whether there is anything specific or a project that has some very specific length? As you said it quite well, the laying of rigid pipelines is very risky. I would just like to get a better understanding about the risk factors. Thank you. Can you talk about that?
Vicente flow rate, you're referring to the fourth phase or the past? Oh, you're talking about the future. Okay. Now, we are conducting the geological studies. We are just managing the collected data, and then we run a simulation mode.
I would say that in order to have a better calibration and to connect the entire line, this will take some 3-6 months until we have all the data, and then we approve. It's we say: Okay, it's interesting. We will have X wells, et cetera. And then we look at how much we will have of recoverable, how much value we'll generate, and then we'll say: Okay, let's do it. I would say that in the second quarter of next year, we could give you some more color about it, because we will be working on it. In terms of benchmark, I think I'm being repetitive. We ran a study not only in the Gulf of Mexico, but all over the world.
We talked to a lot of people to find out what were all the possible technologies, and there are some projects that are very similar to ours. There is one in the US, in the Gulf of Mexico, that is a bit bigger than ours, and there are others that are much longer. In Australia, there is one that is 50 kilometers long, in the Gulf of Mexico, one that is 37 or 40 kilometers long. What's the name of that other one? Dalmatian. Dalmatian, I think, is almost equal to ours. So until we get the green light, we checked everything from every possible angle. So I would say, when we did all of the engineering studies, everything we did next indicated that we are even more conservative than what was necessary. Therefore, we are very comfortable.
This company, I don't know whether you noticed, but there is a company that is helping us with the receival of materials. It's called Pinnacle. It's in the Gulf of Mexico. They were in charge of doing that project. It's. I think it's a Murphy project that connects it to the Chevron's platform. So we use that, and then the company that has done a peer review, and today is in charge of receiving all the items that we bought, is Pinnacle. Again, the same company. So I think we are well covered. In terms of risk, I think in terms of, you know, laying the pipelines, that's not a risky activity, because drilling involves a lot more risk, and we do that all the time.
What you could have in terms of laying the pipelines is that you may have a very, you know, bad ocean, and that's a non-predicted time. Let's say you get the worst ocean of the last few years, and then we were in at 65, 75, 80. It's a risk, you know? You could have that risk. It's not an activity. I mean, everything in offshore and the vessel, everything. In terms of everything is a risky activity, the pipe laying is not one of the most risky activities there is. It's not. Just to throw some more color.
In this evaluation and benchmark process, we studied a lot of other projects in other geographies, and when we look at the Northern Sea that is more mature and more evolved, they went through this process, you know, of going public and, and becoming new companies thirty years ago, that is totally dominated by. I mean, by, by rigid pipelines. In the world outside Brazil, that's very common. In other regions, the flexible pipeline has gained more market. So the risk is, I mean, the risk is part of the business. It's nothing unusual. Maybe let's say that our local structure is totally geared towards flexible pipelines, therefore, we are protecting ourselves so that all the support, terminals, procedures, accessories, et cetera, we have to be more careful in terms of having that very well protected because we want to, to be surprised in the last minute.
Who are we? Well, we are bringing a company to help us, and they, they are very knowledgeable in this area because that's all they do. They've been doing that in tons and, and tons of projects. Victor, from Opportunity. I think most of the questions have been asked and answered. I only have three questions. Two are addressed to Francilma r, and the other one, I don't know. I mean, whoever, you decide. But the first question is: I noticed that Maracanã's oil seems to be a bit different when compared to what you're used to having in Frade, and then when the tieback is connected, I imagine that the tieback or the blend in Frade will change along the years. What about the chemical they use for water disposal?
Do you think that this will require some workaround, or whether this is a problem that you will postpone it for a later period? And my second question is that I noticed that in the subsea design for Wahoo, I don't know whether I wasn't attentive enough, but I didn't see the reinjection system. I'm not sure whether you postponed that, you wanna do that later on. How are you going to manage the reinjection thing? So Arapuça, you also said that possibly the injection will, I mean, will be produced by FPSO, but I know Frade. Frade is ours. FPSO Frade, that's ours. Are you going to negotiate any type of handling fee with the Roncador Consortium? And what kind of negotiation is that? How strong are you? Let me just say something about Wahoo. Now, we were talking about the, the layout of the first oil.
There are only three Christmas trees, so three wells. Just first oil is to be non-polluted. So we do the first oil, and then the rig, I mean, according to the plan, it goes through ABL. We expedite the production of ABL, and then we go back to do the injection, because all you have to do is, you know, to use CapEx without doing much more than that. Maracanã quality, we have two surprises. I mean, we always try to look for another target. The primary oil, Maracanã, was a bit heavier, has had more viscosity. At first, the blend of Wahoo oil. Wahoo oil is much better. It will improve the blend. We even see that there should be improvements because the oil is lighter. The Maracanã entry in the oil is part of that study.
Then we ran several chemical analysis to analyze compatibility, et cetera. Based on that information, if it is a bit to this side or that, or a bit over the other, the other way, I mean, that's not a problem, because we already acquired a lot of experience in that regard. The good surprise is that in that reservoir, the oil, in Eocene, the oil is much better. Usually when it's shallow, it's worse, but the oil that we found is very similar to the one from Frade. Very nice. Of course, they still have to do an appraisal. We have to look at the entire extension, but it's something that in the future looks very promising. Now, about Arapuça. We are in the midst of this process.
I would say that with a good degree of certainty, this will happen through Forci, as you said before, and there will be a cost-sharing. So according to the production, we will just split the expenses of FPSO, or there will be a handling fee. Argentina doesn't know which way they will go, but there will be two things. It won't be an oil produced for free, quote, unquote. The idea is for us to conclude that at some point in the first half of next year. But it will be within the unitization environment? Yeah, within the unitization. There is a PD. We are working at that calculation that parties sent to the agency.
I'm Tastito from UBS. Thank you for the presentation and for the opportunity to ask a question.
I would like to take the opportunity now to ask Nelson and Roberto. Nelson, in your initial remark, you talked about the successful track record of PetroRio. You referred to Polvo, you know, Albacora, Maracanã. Looking back, knowing of everything that happened, whether PetroRio would have gone in this direction or whether another player could have done that. Now, let's look at things going further. Certainly, time will tell. But PetroRio's history and the successful track record with that strategy, could we say that the same strategy that has worked in the past few years will be the same that you will use from now on, or you're probably thinking about an alternative route? Maybe this is in line with that big dream.
What would be the main, you know, hallmarks or the main things that will lead you to maybe change the strategy or M&As that could, at one point, you start paying dividends? Now, about PRIO's history. Well, what I was trying to say is that this path or the story we built. It's very difficult to be replicated because each one of these assets required growth and adaptation, and mainly, a good spirit to mold and go beyond. So any company from any industry, I mean, there are not very many that are willing to do that or to go in that space, ready to take all the risks. I mean, it took time and a lot of dedication, and now we master, you know, the industry and what we do. And I'm referring to operations, M&As. We are constantly looking for returns.
This has to generate major returns, even in difficult scenarios, and we can extrapolate. The dream has always been big. What's done is done. The willingness is the same. I even said that. This more abstract side, I mean, it's also resonates with something more tangible. We have to look at some good business for third parties, and maybe they haven't looked at it, and that could be a good business for us, and this is how we keep going. On a more objective side, Brazil has large opportunities for majors and for the minor companies. Maybe what is good today may not be so good tomorrow with something that is no longer so big for the majors. Maybe they look for something else to buy, and we already have technical capacity that has been accumulated throughout the years.
We have operating capacity, financial capacity. So one way or the other, PRIO, I cheer that PRIO will be the first company they, they go to, to engage in different transactions. And Roberto said, whenever we look at other geographies, it has to be something very close to what we believe in, and that we're something that we can make grow. Brazil is a very challenging and difficult geography, and, you know, Brazil is difficult, you know, across the board. So if you look at another geography, it has to be one that is more stable than ours. But the dream remains the same, which is a gigantic dream. If we grew 40 times, you know, from a 100,000 barrels up, imagine, you know, growing 40 times over a 100,000. We can get very close to hitting a record.
Well, you hit a record if you try. If you don't try, you'll never get there. Once you are practicing, you're already hitting your record, and during the competition, you can hit another record, and we are getting prepared for that. But we want more. You have to generate returns so you can have more cash to buy more assets and do more M&As. I know that I'm, that's obvious, but our path is very clear, and we are going after our targets. One last thing you said, it's about dividends. I mean, everybody talks about dividends all the time. I mean, in terms of dividends, nobody here is mad. Of course, if we don't see any growth opportunities, we will do share buyback or maybe we can get debt. But that means that we failed in terms of allocating capital at 20% return.
So our objective number one is being able to allocate that capital at adequate returns. No one is crazy or mad. These are levers that are at the tape. We see possibility of making M&As, dividends, share buyback, and we will do that in a way that we will all win. Well, I think all of us have at least 90% of our, you know, of our shares of, of PRIO. I think so we are all on the same boat. I'm not saying that without M&A, I will pay dividends the day after tomorrow. No! This is just one more thing that is part of the business. And now I'll tell you that most of my schedule is focusing on originating M&A, but nobody's going to do anything mad or buy things in jurisdictions that make no sense.
But yeah, we are trying to create opportunities of capital allocation, but capital allocation with good returns. This is our main focus, main objective. If we fail, which is a possibility, and then if we fail, we will have to think about what to do. We will generate a lot of cash. We generated a lot of cash this year and certainly next year. Now, speaking about M&As, there are two things: One, we already said no to several M&As, M&A opportunities. I mean, eight to reach 80,000 barrels and lose money, that's a story that ends very quickly. There are several M&As to whom we said no. Even the deal with Maersk, we asked for $40 million. They came back to us with $34 million. There were transactions that a lot of companies paid, and we asked, instead of having, you know, cash outflow, we had inflow.
In terms of sometimes we just had to consider many deals that didn't work. We said no to a lot of things. In terms of not making any kind of allocation, we say a lot of noes. We are constantly asked to look at assets that make no sense. Speaking about M&As, and at this time, I'm speaking a little bit more about it. The good thing about PRIO, I mean, the operating team, they understand a lot about finance. They have a very clear understanding that every cent that is saved, once we can internalize something, this can generate value for the company and allows us to have more capital and better health to do M&As. And now I'm saying a little bit more, but we talk a lot about that. Everybody is very active. The people in operations, Bruno, everybody is engaged.
Sometimes I just give my opinion about operations. I mean, there are roads not to be taken. It's also good, too. Therefore, we're an integrated company. We have a lot of strong leaders. We have strong leaders across the company and everywhere. We have constant conversations about what is best for the company, and we always have a very clear view to create value. Roberto has a slide that he presented a million times. A slide that he loves. What we want at PRIO: safety, sustainability, and profit. But profit is number three, but without being profitable, you're nothing. Without safety, you have nothing. Sustainability is part of the PRIO model. We reduce inefficiencies, we create value, we reduce CO2 emissions. But these are conversations that are ongoing at the firm. We'll pay attention to capital allocations, to the possibility of share buyback.
If the share price drops, we buy them back. We've been doing this. Of course, very small compared to cash generation next year. So let's see what's going to happen next year. But what I can tell you is that we're not gonna be pulling a rabbit out of the hat. "Oh, by the way, we bought an asset in Indonesia." It's not gonna happen, so you can rest assured we'll continue to be very diligent, as always. I think that we should try to keep that in mind. If we're not successful next year, then we'll sit and think about what to do. But again, regarding dividends, look at our track record. We always have allocated more capital than we needed. If the market is not there, we won't get the deal.
We've done so far, but sometimes we have little cash for everything that we want to do.
Good afternoon. This is Leonardo Marcondes with Bank of America. I have two questions. First, regarding ABL, you mentioned that you should have a maintenance downtime next year. How long do you expect it to last? What is the ramp-up expectation for the wells? And I think that you were thinking about reconnecting some wells that have already been drilled and perhaps the Arapuça drilling in 2024. I just want to know whether Arapuça was pushed back to 2025 and what about the reconnections of some of the wells next year? That's number one. Number two, regarding commercialization of natural gas, perhaps you could give us a little more color regarding what we can expect in terms of volume, contracts that you expect, if it's linked to the BRL, inflation, or any other type of reference.
And what would be your cost structure for the transport of this gas?
I'll speak about ABL, Albacora Leste. I asked Furtado not to be too—Actually, Richard, not to be too accurate regarding when Arapuça will start or when whatever will start, because you see, we have the Wahoo point to be implemented. After Wahoo, we'll move to Albacora, ABL. But there are some variables that we need to take into account to exactly know when the drilling rig will go to ABL to complete already drilled wells, which is the case of Arapuça. They need to be completed or to do new drillings. And that's why I asked him not to be too precise regarding what's going to happen in 2024, because it will really depend on what's going to happen with Wahoo along 2024.
I have been saying that our peak production at ABL is maintaining that around close to 65,000 barrels daily for PetroRio, for PRIO. Our reserve certification, that would come in 2027. Of course, our strategy is to bring this forward. I don't know. It's not for 2024, but perhaps the 2025. That would be our objective. Now, what is going to happen? I cannot really tell what's going to happen in 2024, 2025, because it all depends on Wahoo. So it's Wahoo, and after Wahoo, Albacora Leste, ABL. The Arapuça Well has been producing. It was tested. It gave us 8,000 barrels, a restricted test. There's even a possibility that we'll produce more, but I don't wanna commit to that.
With everything that has happened with Wahoo, I have promised you the license 30 times before, so I don't want to commit to production by the end of next year. That's why we've been kind of not very precise in our answers. Oh, what about the scheduled downtime? Well, that's normal. That's preventive maintenance for the units. Every 12-18 months, they need to stop for a general inspection. So for ABL, we'll stop for 10 days. I think it's scheduled for April. So that's kind of scheduled for April. Then we're going to have a general downtime. That's super normal. It's actually very healthy to maintain the quality and availability of the unit. In February, we should have a stoppage at Frade.
That hurt us a lot more, about 12 days, because of the production for maintenance and also for the project to receive the oil from Wahoo. We had it this year, and it will happen next year, and we kind of interspersed that, so it won't happen all at the same time. As for gas, please help me out, guys, if I say something wrong. For gas, we should be selling gas as a percentage of the Brent price. The numbers are ranging from 9%-11%, right? It's the Fed; he corrects me every time. You know, basically for gas, we need to put together a portfolio, so 9%-11%, 12% of the Brent will depend on the product that we'll create. The main objective when we sell gas is to maintain oil flow.
We need to ensure gas flow to ensure that oil will be produced. That's why we put together a portfolio. The market today, Brazil still works as a percentage of the Brent. We can design caps and floors. By negotiating with the end client, this is easier. The cost of access to infrastructure is fixed, adjusted for inflation, and that's why eventually it won't make sense to have a collar of revenues. So we might have to give up on some of our peak price to be able to ensure. So it's nothing very different than that. It's a portfolio with different values, with a cost of flow and processing.
Great, I don't see any more raised hands. All right, so I think this is it. Well, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us face-to-face and those joining us online.
We're ending the event now, and outside there's a space for a cocktail, you know, for us. Please stay as long as you want. I'd like to thank you for attending today, those attending online, and I hope to see you next time. Thank you very much.