The last time Petrobras opened a tender for flotels of this magnitude was in 2014, before the crisis, the big players in the sector and the market were “fervent”.

Suppliers of hosting vessels are preparing for an intense competition on January 21st for the contract to supply Floteis to Petrobras. In the current tender, Petrobras is looking for units equipped with dynamic positioning, helipads and fully automatic and retractable walkways, with capacity for at least 450 people.

A competitive online bidding process will decide the winners of two or more units to work with Petrobras on a renewable three-year contract.

The proposal is divided into two packages. The specifications of the first prevent vessels converted to ship form, while the second allows them..

In the first bid, Petrobras wants the hosting vessels to be ready within 150 days of awarding the contract, but there is a risk that a slow decision-making process could undermine the goal of putting the new units into operation before the end of the year.

A second tender, issued shortly before the Christmas holidays, provides for the deployment of a single flotel by the P-50 floating production, storage and offloading vessel in the Albacora Leste field and managed from the port of Vitória, in Espírito Santo. The tender for the supply of this unit was scheduled for January 28th.

Petrobras is looking for a unit that will be available within three months of signing the contract, and is offering a term of just 210 days, renewable for the same period.

Os bidders expected to arrive on January 21 include GranEnergia, which has its compact semi-submersible unit, Olympia, linked to Equinor, working on the Peregrino development in the Campos Basin.

GranEnergia is likely to base its bids on the accommodation vessel CSS Venus and possibly the CSS Themis, which is currently owned by builder Fujian Mawei Shipyard.

The CSS Venus is working on Total's Kaombo project in Angola until mid-year and should be available in time for any of Petrobras' contracts.

The CSS Themis is working on Total's Egina project in Nigeria, under a bareboat contract with MAC Offshore and could also be available for new Petrobras contracts.

When GranEnergia purchased the CSS Venus, the Brazilian company also negotiated exclusive rights to the CSS Themis in Latin America, as well as the right to match any third-party offer to acquire the vessel.

Other likely bidders in the Petrobras auction include Floatel International, PACC Offshore (POSH), OOS International, Sea Trucks and Hornbeck Offshore.

Prosafe will also be a winning competitor, with three new units docked at Cosco Shipyard. These are the recently acquired Axis Nova and Axis Vega, as well as the sister unit Safe Notos, which now works for Petrobras in Brazil.

Edda Accommodation is bidding against the Edda Fides monohull, while the Aquário Brasil, partly owned by Singapore's Sembcorp Marine shipyard, is also expected to appear.

“It's going to be very crowded there, and bidders with monohulls are pushing for a chance to show they can do the job well,” commented one industry insider.

A Petrobras, which at one point had nine units operating simultaneously outside Brazil, is reduced to a fleet of four accommodation ships - OOS Gretha, OOS Tiradentes, POSH Xanadu and Safe Notos -, but only the last of them has a contract until 2020.

The POSH Xanadu is serving Petrobras for a renewable period of eight months in the Campos Basin, so POSH's most likely option for the tender is the SS Arcadia.

Prosafe also has Safe Concordia in Brazil, working for Japanese float specialist Modec on a short-term contract expiring in May.

The last time Petrobras sought floteis for periods of three years or more was in 2014.

For the new tender, bidders are wary of how the online auction format works because technical disqualification can follow an apparently successful bid. Specifications have changed to mitigate the presumed risk of allowing monohulls and even the CCS format can be challenged by deck space demands.

Regardless of Petrobras' demand for larger flotiles, the state-owned company also signaled its intention to seek smaller units with a capacity of 200 to 250 people.