Report: Petrobras to launch tender for Brazil’s largest-ever FPSO

Brazilian oil company Petrobras will be launching a tender for the construction of Brazil’s biggest floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

According to an article by Reuters which cited two people with knowledge of the matter, the state-controlled oil firm will announce the tender by the end of August.

The news
agency explained that such vessels cost between $2.5 billion and $3 billion to
build. Winners of the tender build and own the platforms, and lease them to
Petrobras in contracts with daily rates of up to $1 million that often last
longer than 15 years.

The sources also
claimed that the FPSO will be located in the Buzios field, making it the
seventh such vessel there. Buzios is Brazil’s second most productive field and
one of the biggest deepwater discoveries in the 21^st century.

Petrobras is apparently considering a unit able to process 225,000 barrels per day. The vessel will be larger than Equinor’s Bacalhau FPSO which was ordered from MODEC earlier this year. At the time of the order, the FPSO was described as the largest vessel of its kind in Brazil with 220,000 bpd.

The request
for bids shows the state-controlled producer is moving ahead with investment
plans for its most prolific fields regardless of the recent drop in oil prices
and lower demand.

The sources noted
that the competition for the FPSO is expected to take several months and that 10
companies were pre-qualified by Petrobras to compete.

These include
the world’s biggest FPSO providers, Japan’s Modec and the Amsterdam-based SBM
Offshore.