AKER Solutions said yesterday it had been awarded a contract worth almost £42million by Brazil’s national oil company, Petrobras, to supply the first set of subsea trees – including control systems and related equipment – for the Tupi field development off Brazil.
The company said it would be the first supplier of subsea production equipment for the challenging pre-salt layer in the Santos Basin.
It said it would utilise its technology know-how for high-pressure/high-temperature deepwater conditions to engineer a solution for Petrobras, with the first subsea tree due for delivery by the end of 2010.
The scope of work covers nine subsea trees, subsea control systems, two complete tool sets plus related accessories and spare parts.
It will be managed, designed and engineered by Aker Solutions’ manufacturing base in Curitiba, Brazil, with support from Aberdeen for the subsea control systems.
Tupi will be a huge development. Petrobras has said it estimates the field could contain recoverable reserves of 5billion-8billion barrels of oil equivalent, making it one of the world’s biggest hydrocarbon finds.
BG Group has a 25% interest in Tupi, Petrobras has 65% and is operator, and Portuguese firm Galp has 10%.