Equinor doles out two deals for recently sanctioned $9 billion oil & gas project

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has awarded two contracts for its recently sanctioned oil and gas project in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil.

Equinor revealed on Wednesday, 10 May 2023, that it had handed out a contract for subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF) to TechnipFMC and a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for the delivery of a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit to MODEC.

Both of these contracts were awarded for a project for which the Norwegian giant made the final investment decision on 8 May 2023. This project covers the cluster of the Pao de Acucar, Seat and Gavea fields in the BM-C-33 block of the Campos Basin offshore Brazil.

Furthermore, Equinor has exercised an option with TechnipFMC, following their front-end engineering design awarded in July 2022, to deliver integrated engineering, procurement, construction and installation for the SURF system, which will be installed in water depth of approximately 2,900 metres, as the deepest installation in Equinor’s history.

The contract entails the delivery of Subsea 2.0 tree systems, manifolds, jumpers, rigid risers and flowlines, umbilicals, pipeline end terminations, and subsea distribution and topside control equipment. TechnipFMC has also been awarded frame agreements for add-on equipment and subsea operational services.

Geir Tungesvik, executive vice president for Projects, Drilling & Procurement, remarked: “We are pleased to award these contracts to companies known for their expertise and quality, which will be important for these milestone deliveries to the BM-C-33 development.

“MODEC was also awarded the FPSO contract for our Bacalhau project, and we look forward to draw from experiences between the two projects, to ensure safe and efficient execution of the developments. We also have a long history of collaboration with TechnipFMC and we are pleased to continue our good collaboration on another major project development.”

According to the company, combined cycle technology will be used on the FPSO to reduce the CO₂ intensity. The firm outlines that the FPSO award is mainly one lump sum turnkey contract including engineering, procurement, construction and installation for the entire unit. The vessel’s expected delivery date is in 2027. In addition, MODEC will provide Equinor with operations and maintenance service of the FPSO for the first year from its start-up, after which Equinor plans to operate the unit.

Veronica Coelho, Equinor’s senior vice president and country manager for Brazil, commented: “BM-C-33 is a world class asset in the Brazilian pre-salt Campos area. Brazil is a core growth area for Equinor, and the company has ambitions to deepen our presence in the country. BM-C-33 will be an important contributor to reach this goal, being a key gas supplier to the domestic market, contributing to industrial development and energy security locally.

“At the same time, we are committed to use technology to lower our emissions substantially. BM-C-33 has a carbon intensity target of less than 6 kg/boe over the field lifetime, while the global industry average is 16 kg CO₂ per barrel.”

The BM-C-33 block was discovered by Repsol Sinopec in 2010 and Equinor took over the operatorship in 2016. The partners approved the development concept for BM-C-33 in March 2021. The start-up of the project is planned for 2028.

Equinor as the operator holds a 35 per cent stake in this block while Repsol Sinopec Brasil and Petrobras hold 35 and 30 per cent interest, respectively.