Perenco Brasil and Porto do Açu have signed a letter of intent to develop an offshore electrification project that will connect the Pargo and Cherne shallow-water clusters in Brazil’s Campos Basin to power from shore.
The project will use an approximately 80 km subsea cable running from an onshore substation at Porto do Açu in São João da Barra, Rio de Janeiro, to Perenco’s offshore facilities. The cable will connect to the central platform in the Pargo cluster, where electricity can be distributed to satellite units through the existing interconnection network.
Initial power demand is forecast at 35 MW, with capacity potentially increasing to 60 MW within four years. The system is expected to become operational in the first quarter of 2028.
Reuters reported that Perenco plans to invest $110 million in the project, with construction scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2027. The company has also received an access opinion from Brazil’s National Electric System Operator, ONS, for connection to the national grid.
The offshore facilities currently generate electricity locally using turbogenerators. According to Reuters, Perenco uses gas produced from its fields as well as additional volumes purchased from Petrobras and currently buys up to about 2.5 million cubic feet per day for electricity generation.
Under the planned electrification, grid power will replace the portion of local generation that depends on purchased gas, while Perenco plans to continue using its own produced gas in the offshore generators.
The project is being developed as Perenco also works to return the Cherne assets to production. The company completed its acquisition of the Cherne and Bagre concessions from Petrobras in August 2025.
Separately, DORIS is supporting Perenco Brasil on the pre-FEED and advanced FEED phases of the Cherne revitalization and electrification project for the PCH-1 and PCH-2 platforms. According to DORIS, the platforms have topsides commissioned in 1984 and have been offline since 2020.
The engineering work forms part of Perenco’s $250 million redevelopment programme for Cherne and Bagre. The programme includes integrity work on PCH-1 and PCH-2 and the installation of a new 10-inch, 27 km pipeline between PCH-1 and the Pargo platform.
The redevelopment plan also includes well interventions and re-entries intended to return 36 wells to production. Perenco is targeting production of 15,000 barrels of oil per day from the Cherne and Bagre concessions.
