More rigs please: Petrobras approves first stage of a 28-rig order.
Petrobras kicks off big rig build plans
Petrobras directors have approved the first phase of an ambitious Brazilian rig-building programme, calling for a total of 28 high-capacity rigs for exploring and developing the huge pre-salt province.
As reported by Upstream, the domestic rig-building project will begin with a tender for seven drillships, with a parallel bidding process for one or more semisumbersible units under charter contract.
The proposal was approved by the Petrobras board of directors yesterday.
The tender documents are expected to be issued within a month, according to Petrobras E&P director Guilherme Estrella.
The first seven units will be contracted directly with shipyards in Brazil.
Under the project terms, Petrobras will retain the role of operator and is not expected to contract out this role.
While the rig-building programme has attracted keen interest from South Korean shipyards interested in investing with Brazilian partners, the international rig companies have given a cooler response to the idea of building units for charter in-country.
“We will take a look at it, but we are wary about the risks and the probable aggressive bidding by Brazilians companies,” said a manager with an international drilling outfit.
The Brazilian-built rigs will be capable of working in up to 3000 metres of water.
Petrobras already plans to take delivery of 26 new rigs between now and 2012, but the 28 locally-built units represent the next phase in the company's huge expansion plan.
Delivery of these is scheduled to run from the end of 2013 until 2017.