UPDATE 1-Petrobras starts up new rig, meets capacity goal

(Adds context, plans for next year)

By Andrei Khalip

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Brazil's state oil company Petrobras has started up a new 180,000 barrel-per-day rig, meeting its 2007 goal for new capacity, if not production, after months of delays.

A company spokeswoman said on Wednesday the P-54 rig started pumping crude in the Campos basin on Tuesday night.

It is the second rig with that production capacity to start working on Roncador in the past two weeks and the third platform to go on-stream since Nov 16, when Petrobras (PETR4.SA)(PBR.N) cranked up the 100,000 bpd rig on the light oil Golfinho field in the Espirito Santo basin.

The rigs are slowly ramping up production and should reach capacity by the end of the first half of next year, when more platforms are expected to be launched.

All the rigs have suffered delays due to problems with suppliers in an overheated market as well as the complexity of the projects, but still, Petrobras added 560,000 bpd capacity this year as planned, proving that Brazil is a key area of new world crude output growth.

Brazil met its oil needs for the first time last year.

Over the past 12 months, Petrobras has also launched a 60,000 bpd rig on the Jubarte field last December, a 100,000 bpd platform on Espadarte Sul in January and a small 30,000 bpd rig on the light oil Piranema field in October.

Because of the long delays with bringing on-stream the new rigs and slow ramp-up at others, Petrobras output should rise just between 1 percent this year from last year's average of 1.78 million bpd, below the initial growth target of about 10 percent.

Domestic oil output by Petrobras fell 2.3 percent in October to 1.73 million bpd from September in its fourth straight monthly drop and was a steep 5 percent below year-ago levels, but the company says November presented an ascending production curve again.

Next year, Petrobras, which accounts for nearly all crude production and refining in Latin America's largest country, expects to put on-stream another three rigs with a total 460,000 bpd capacity.

These include the projected mid-2008 start of the 180,000 bpd P-51 platform on the Marlim Sul field and second-half launch of the 180,000 bpd P-53 on the Marlim Leste, as well as the 100,000 bpd Cidade Niteroi oil and gas production platform on the Jabuti field. (Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by John Picinich)