BRAZIL’S plan to build/complete a large number of rigs in-country for use by Petrobras has moved on apace since Energy last reported on the topic in August.
The company has now approved the plan to hire up to 28 new ultra-deepwater capability units, with deliveries anticipated over the period 2013-18.
Phase one will cover at least nine such units, of which seven drillships will be series-built at the same shipyard to achieve economies of scale.
It is reported that the other two units – whether drillships or semi-submersibles – are to be built separately and may use new technologies that also incorporate concepts “still new in the market” and which would give Petrobras significant economic and operating advantage in the deepwater sector.
Petrobras said the huge volume of orders in the pipeline would play a key role in building Brazil’s position as a leading shipbuilding force capable of competing on the international stage. The same tenet applies to the supply chain which will be required to supply the yards.
Petrobras is now analysing ways to facilitate access to credit by the suppliers who will comprise that supply chain.
Expectation is that the build programme will generate upwards of 40,000 new direct and indirect jobs after all orders have been placed.
The Brazilian government is committing, via the country’s Guarantee Fund for Naval Construction, some $2.18billion exclusively to guarantee the construction of these 28 drilling rigs.
In August, we reported that, having been in East Asia window-shopping at companies such as Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Hyundai Heavy Industries, Petrobras had decided on a patriotic course of action. Late-July saw the company signal that the 28 deepwater units required for the massive ultra-deepwater, pre-salt programme kicked off with the successful Tupi oil discovery will, in fact, be built in Brazil, with deliveries starting in 2012.
According to Seatrade Asia Online, designers such as Rio de Janeiro-based Projemar are already working up concepts.
Energy also urged British companies not to lose out, and we note that the UK Government’s UK Trade & Investment unit ran a Brazil seminar at the 2009 Offshore Europe last month.
Meanwhile, Petrobras remains hungry for existing competent drilling tonnage and has just hired the semi, Ocean Courage, from Diamond Offshore for five years.
Diamond Offshore said the contract with Petrobras provided for a dayrate of $410,000-plus.