Brazilian state-owned Petrobras agrees with the terms for the Búzios unit, while another intends to close a contract for a float in Mero-2
Petrobras has struck a deal with Japan's Modec for a floating production, storage and offloading unit for the Búzios field, while the Brazilian oil giant has also received a potentially winning bid from SBM Offshore to supply the FPSO Mero-2. Modec and Petrobras began negotiating terms for the Búzios-5 FPSO in February, following the failure of the original bidder, Exmar, to complete its financing agreements.
With Petrobras' legal team apparently convinced that the state-controlled company can negotiate with the runner-up without running afoul of compliance procedures, the company's negotiators accepted a significantly higher diarate than that proposed by Exmar, of US$ 635.000. still about $100.000 off the Modec's original price of $815.000.
The deal has yet to be submitted for approval by Petrobras' board, meaning signing is likely still a month or two away.
There is still a small risk of legal delay, as Brazilian unions have had some success in invoking compliance procedures to obtain court injunctions, but there are still no signs of this happening.
The Búzios-5 unit will provide Petrobras with an additional 180 barrels per day of gross processing capacity, in addition to 6 million cubic meters per day of natural gas handling capacity.
The first oil date was recently pushed back by a year to 2022 due to delays in contracting.
In another major tender, Petrobras has opened commercial tenders for the Mero-2 FPSO, with SBM appearing as the lowest bidder, offering a day rate of less than $700 a day, the sources said.
“That was aggressive. SBM was making a real statement about returning to the Brazilian market,” said a source.
SBM's price compares to the daily quote of US$721.000 that Modec bid to win the contract for FPSO Mero-1, and it easily beats the Japanese company's latest bid, estimated at more than US$790.000.
SBM did not hide its interest in targeting Mero for its return in Brazil.
FPSOs Mero-1 and Mero-2 will have the capacity to produce 180.000 bpd of crude oil and process 12 MMcmd of natural gas, and are expected to start production in 2021 and 2022, respectively, working under 22-year charters.
In a third development last week, Teekay Offshore suffered technical disqualification from a bid for two FPSOs in the Marlim oilfield, leaving Modec chasing both units but facing competition from one of Yinson Holdings' units in Malaysia.
Two in the running for the Mero 2 FPSO award
Teekay's disqualification came as Petrobras disagreed with some contingency factors contained in the proposal, but the Canadian contractor refused to proceed without them.
FPSO Marlim-1 will have the capacity to produce 80.000 bpd of crude oil and 7 MMcmd of natural gas, while Marlim-2 will produce up to 70.000 bpd of crude oil and compress up to 4 MMcmd of gas.
Petrobras offers a 22-year charter, but has allowed contractors to submit bids for one or both units. By tendering for both units, Modec can take advantage of economies of scale, although some sources have suggested that the company is willing to moderate its Brazilian workload and may even prefer to have a single unit.
Yinson Holdings is a newcomer in Brazil.
