Sembcorp Snags Libra FPSO Conversion Deal

Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Sembcorp Marine, has secured a USD 696 million contract to convert a shuttle tanker into a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for OOGTK Libra GmbH & Co KG, a joint venture between Brazil’s Odebrecht Oil & Gas and Teekay Offshore.

The contract involves the conversion of the Navion Norvegia shuttle tanker to an FPSO that includes detailed engineering, installation and integration of topside modules, installation of external turret and power generation, accommodation upgrading, as well as extensive piping and electrical cabling works.

Scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2016, the FPSO will have the capacity to produce 50,000 barrels of oil per day and 4 million cubic metres of natural gas per day, and is expected to be chartered to Petrobras for work on the Libra field in the ultra-deepwater section of Brazil’s Santos Basin. Operating as an early well-test unit, the FPSO will be on a 12-year charter once it begins its contract in late 2016.

Petrobras had nominated Teekay Offshore and Odebrecht Oil & Gas’s 50/50 joint venture as the lead commercial bidder on the Libra project. The FPSO unit is expected to be owned and operated by the joint venture company and will service the Libra pre-salt field in the Santos Basin offshore Brazil, which is expected to start operations in late 2016.

The block covers approximately 1,550 square kilometres in water depths of around 2,000 meters (6,500 feet). The reservoir depth is around 3,500 meters below the sea floor (11,500 feet). Brazil’s ANP has estimated that total gross peak oil production could reach 1.4 million barrels per day.