Ocyan plans to participate in the upcoming risers’ bids for the Libra area in the Santos Basin pre-salt. The idea is to compete with a hybrid solution, developed in partnership with the English company Magma Global.
Launched during the OTC in Houston, the system consists of a rigid duct wrapped by lines of composite material attached to a flotation tank, which in turn is connected via jumpers to the floating platform. On the sea floor, a “skirt” allows flexible flowlines to exit the wells.
With the riser tower configuration – already used in Mexico in the 1980s and more recently in Angola by Total and BP – the company expects to reduce the riser’s weight to 80% to the FPSO, allowing the size of the risers counter, among other gains.
“We are interested in participating in Mero 2, and 3. Our next step is to gain a space to participate in the bids,” says Ocyan’s Integrated Services Superintendent, Jorge Luiz Uchoa Mitidieri.
Today, the company is waiting for the completion of the technological qualification process of the Magma composite pipes with Petrobras, which should occur between this and the next year for 6 “and 8” diameter lines, respectively.
No less important will be the end of the injunction that prevents Ocyan from closing new contracts with Petrobras. Despite not being convicted in court, the company is subject to the impediment that falls on the holding Odebrecht, the object of investigations in Operation Lava Jato, by the Federal Police. “We are confident. Today I put in a consensus solution so that we can participate in Mero 2 onwards, “says Mitidieri.
Historic
Petrobras is currently promoting a contract to hire the SURF of the Mero 1 field. Allseas, Heerema, McDermott and Subsea 7 were invited to the process, with which Ocyan has already worked in partnership with the North Gas Pipeline -Capixaba, between 2010 and 2011.
At the same time, the company participated in a Petrobras competition to supply the Lula and Sapinhoá risers system. Although technically approved, its proposal was superseded by the offer of Subsea 7, with the system of jars. “We lost a 10-15% price difference,” recalls the Ocyan director.
In 2012, in a new attempt to seal the risers tower, the company was defeated by Saipem and Technip in a bid also focused on the pre-salt. The Italians won on the occasion with the proposal of a steel lazy wave riser (SLWR) and the French, with a solution based on flexible ducts.
“In both cases, our towers were very similar to those in Africa, with rigid risers, a more conservative system. We had not presented anything new until then, “says Mitidieri.
After that, the Brazilians formed an alliance with Technip (now TechnipFMC) to build and operate two PLSVs (launching vessels for flexible lines). Manufactured by the DSME shipyard in South Korea, the Top Coral do Atlântico and Estrela do Mar vessels are in the fourth of five years of the contract started in 2014 with Petrobras.
“But we went back to studying the tower with a vision of innovation. We do not think the rigid pipeline will take the place of the flexible, but I believe the market is headed for a mixed solution, “says the executive.
Source: Brazil Energy
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