(PN) Petronotícias published an exclusive investigation report into the outcome of the Petrobras tender to contract the P-84 and P-85 platforms, for the Atapu and Sépia fields, respectively, in the pre- salt from the Santos Basin. After a few months of negotiations, Seatrium (a company formed by the merger between Sembcorp Marine and Keppel Offshore) was chosen as the winner of the tender. The information was confirmed by two market sources. Petronoticias already anticipated in January that Petrobras was already in direct talks with Seatrium after the withdrawal of another competitor – China Offshore Oil Engineering Corporation (COOEC).
During an event in Rio de Janeiro, the director of Engineering, Technology and Innovation at Petrobras, Carlos Travassos, announced that the oil company had concluded negotiations with a shipyard to build the two units. However, the executive did not reveal the name. Petrobras tried to negotiate the platforms separately, without success, and ended up opting to negotiate the vessels with a single supplier.
The P-84 (Atapu) and P-85 (Sépia) platforms will each have a daily production capacity of 225 thousand barrels of oil per day and processing of 10 million cubic meters of gas per day. The start of production is scheduled for 2029 – that is, outside the oil company’s current Strategic Planning, which runs from 2024 to 2028.
Petrobras holds a 65.7% stake in the Atapu shared field, in partnership with Shell (16.7%), TotalEnergies (15%), Petrogal (1 .7%) and the Union, represented by PPSA (0.9%). For the shared Sépia deposit, the composition is as follows: Petrobras (55.3%), TotalEnergies (16.9%), Petronas (12.7%), QatarEnergy (12.7%), Petrogal (2.4 %). In both fields, Petrobras is the operator and PPSA acts as manager of the sharing contract. As the contracting of platforms for both fields involves private companies, the amounts involved and other details of the notice are kept confidential.
The P-84 and P-85 projects are expected to reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions per barrel of oil equivalent produced by 30%. The reduction is due to the benefits of the All Electric configuration, optimizations in the processing plant to increase energy efficiency and the incorporation of several technologies: zero routine ventilation (recovery of ventilated gases from the cargo tanks and the processing plant), deep capture of seawater, use of speed variators in pumps and compressors, cogeneration (Waste Heat Recovery Unit), routine zero burning (torch gas recovery – closed flare) and valves with requirements for low fugitive emissions and capture , use and geological storage of CO2 from the gas produced.
In Brazil, Seatrium operates the BrasFELS shipyards, in Angra dos Reis (RJ) and Jurong Aracruz, in Aracruz (ES). Currently, one of the projects underway at BrasFELS is the construction and assembly of modules for the P-78, the sixth Petrobras platform for the Búzios field. The Jurong Aracruz shipyard worked until 2023 on the finalization process – commissioning, regulatory inspections and operational tests – of the FPSO Anita Garibaldi, which went into operation in August of this year. It is not yet clear what the role of these shipyards will be in the construction of the P-84 and P-85, but the tendency is for the hulls to be built in Asia, while the modules are manufactured in Brazil.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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