Photo finish in race for Petrobras deals

Bids: Petrobras chief executive Maria das Gracas Foster

REUTERS/SCANPIX

By Fabio Palmigiani Rio de Janeiro

 17 January 2013 06:38 GMT

Seadrill-SapuraKencana and Technip-NorSkan are racing neck and neck to secure most, if not all, of the Petrobras orders for a fresh batch of flexible pipelay support vessels to work in the Brazilian pre-salt play.

The contracts could be worth more than $5 billion.

Bids for the vessels are so close that who exactly will get what is yet to be decided.

However, while Subsea 7 is also a contender in one key category, the Norwegian-Malaysian and French-Norwegian partnerships are seen as best placed to walk away with the majority of the work.

One source said Petrobras may end up contracting six or seven PLSVs, splitting three contracts each between Sapura and Technip-NorSkan, and likely picking two vessels from each category in the tender. A seventh unit may be…

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