Petrobras has disqualified the commercial offer submitted by Best Energy in a tender to contract engineering, procurement, construction and installation services for a major fibre-optics grid to link production platforms in the Campos basin offshore Brazil.

Best Energy finished on top in the tender with a bid worth 776.2 million reais ($146 million) but Upstream reported last December the company was at risk of being disqualified.

Well-informed industry sources told Upstream that Petrobras quashed the proposal because a Chinese company that is a partner in the Best Energy-led consortium fell under the operator’s compliance mechanisms.