Subsea7 vessel quartet going on pipelay support duty next year

Luxembourg-domiciled Subsea7 has tucked long-term deals for four pipelay support vessels (PLSVs) under its belt, enabling the ships to work for Brazil’s state-owned energy giant Petrobras.

Shortly after disclosing a contract worth more than $1.25 billion with Petrobras for the work on the Búzios 9 field located some 180 kilometers off the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro in the pre-salt Santos basin, Subsea7 revealed the award of four PLSV contracts with a combined value of over $1.25 billion.

Yann Cottart, Subsea7’s Vice-President Brazil, commented: “Subsea7 is pleased to extend its successful, long-term relationship with Petrobras that has covered both day rate PLSV activities and major greenfield projects since 1998. We look forward to continuing to work together to deliver complex and challenging deepwater developments with high standards of safety and reliability.”

While explaining that these long-term day-rate deals follow a competitive tender process, the subsea player confirmed the start-up of activities would be in 2025, adding that these assignments would be recorded in the backlog in the second quarter.

According to Subsea7, the contracts for the PLSVs Seven Rio, Seven Cruzeiro, and Seven Sun entail a firm three-year period. On the other hand, the award for the PLSV Seven Waves is a firm four-year job. The company did not clarify whether these vessels would work on the Búzios 9 field, however, the offshore operations at the field are slated to be executed in 2026 and 2027.

Multiple jobs spanning geographies have landed on Subsea7’s work menu over the past few months, including a job for a tie-back to an existing floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit in the North Sea.

Recently, the subsea giant’s strategic alliance with OneSubsea, Subsea Integration Alliance, secured a contract with the Turkish Petroleum Offshore Technology Center (TP-OTC) for a natural gas project in the Black Sea in Türkiye.

In addition, a new deal was sealed with OKEA for a North Sea field in Norwegian waters along with a long-term strategic agreement with Equinor for the subsea scope at the Wisting field offshore Norway and the Bay du Nord project off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.