May 3, 2019
Petrobras has been holding workshops with the FPSO companies to discuss the new course of the sector, its demand for the coming years and new contracting modalities, such as the BOT (Build Operate Transfer) model – in which the charterer builds, operates for three , four or five years and then passes the equipment to the field operator. The meetings began in April and since then are held individually at the oil company’s headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.
The state-owned company probes informally the interest of the charterers on the BOT, which reinforces the bet of the market of which at least one of the units to be tendered this year is contracted under the model. Last week, Petrobras launched a RFI (Request for information) to collect information on FPSOs at sea and anchoring activities.
The meetings with the suppliers are conducted by managers of Petrobras’ Production & Technology Development and Corporate Affairs. Last Thursday (2/5), meetings were held with Ocyan and BW Offshore. The list of upcoming meetings should also include SBM, Modec, Teekay, Saipem, Bluewater, Yinson and Bumi Armada, among others.
Petrobras’ demand for new large FPSOs is significant, and the plan is to diversify the contracting model. On the second half of the year three separate notices will be issued: one for the third Mero production unit and one for Itapu – both Santos Basin projects – and another for Sergipe-Alagoas. For Itapu, the bet is that the BOT model will be adopted.
In recent years, the oil company has prioritized the hiring model through chartering. The experience with BOT is with the P-57, originally contracted with Modec, and the P-63, which was in charge of BW Offshore.
Designed to produce 120,000 bopd, Itapu’s FPSO will start operating in 2023. The third Mero unit is being scaled to 180,000 bopd, with the first oil planned for 2022, while the deepwater FPSO of Sergipe -Alagoas is being designed to produce 100 thousand bopd, from 2023.
Source: BE Petroleum
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