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Petrobras seeks bids to build 28 offshore platformsRio de Janeiro, Oct 7, 2009 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Brazilian state-controlled energy company Petrobras said Wednesday it will begin receiving bids next week from shipyards interested in building 28 offshore oil platforms. The rigs, to be used to develop massive pre-salt reserves off Brazil's southeastern coast, must be built in Brazil with a minimum amount of domestic content. Shipyards already operating in the country and domestic and foreign groups interested in opening facilities in Brazil are eligible to compete for concessions, a Petrobras spokesman said. The tender was announced at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro, with Petrobras CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli and other top company executives taking part. Most of the platforms will be used to develop the pre-salt region, so-named because the up to 80 million barrels of oil equivalent it may contain are located thousands of meters below the ocean floor under an unstable layer of salt. The discoveries in the pre-salt layer could lead to a six-fold increase in Brazil's current proven reserves and transform the country into one of the world's leading oil producers and exporters. The platforms - seven of which are to be drill ships and 21 of them either drill ships, semi-submersible or mono-column platforms - must be ready between 2013 and 2017, Petrobras said. The company plans to purchase eight of the platforms and charter out the remaining 20 from operators willing to build them in Brazil. Petrobras' director of services, Renato Duque, said the bidding process will be divided into three separate sections, the first for the construction of seven drill rigs for use in water depths of more than 3,000 meters (9,835 feet). He said the first rig would need to be delivered in 48 months, the second 10 months later, with the remaining platforms following one at a time in eight-month intervals. A second part will be for the construction of two units of any type; Petrobras plans to award those contracts to separate shipyards and will expect both rigs to be ready in 40 months. In the third part of the bidding process, shipyards will compete for concessions to build 19 platforms that Petrobras plans to charter out. No particular type of rig has been specified, although the units must be built in Brazil. "We're also going to demand that those platforms have a minimum percentage of domestic content. That requirement will be not only for the platforms, but also for some other equipment that today is 100 percent imported," Duque said. Petrobras already has hired out three drill rigs built in China, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea for its operations over the next two years. Petrobras, an integrated energy company and the global leader in deepwater oil exploration and production, operates in 27 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. Shares of Petrobras, Brazil's largest corporation, trade on the Sao Paulo, New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires stock exchanges, but the Brazilian government retains control through a golden share. EFE cm/mc |