Five contractors have submitted dozens of bids in a highly anticipated Petrobras tender for the charter of several flexible pipelaying support vessels to carry out operations across Brazil’s pre-salt province in the Campos and Santos basins.

It is unclear how many PLSVs the Brazilian oil giant intends to contract in the new tender, but given average dayrates of about $300,000 and charter periods of three and four years, each vessel ordered would likely result in a deal worth about $400 million, sources told Upstream.