A sextet of drilling contractors has submitted offers in a Petrobras tender for the charter of one or more deep-water rigs for work offshore Brazil, with a local player edging out rivals to land on top in the competition.

Petrobras is in the process of replenishing its rig fleet as the Brazilian state-controlled company has 15 units with contracts expiring by the end of 2022.

According to three industry sources, Brazilian contractor Ocyan ended ahead in the tender after submitting the drillship Norbe IX for a full price of approximately 1 billion reais ($175.6 million).

Petrobras is offering contracts for a period of three years, which suggests Ocyan bid a dayrate of approximately $160,000.

The Norbe IX is currently chartered to Petrobras until September this year and it was not immediately clear if the price proposed by Ocyan includes any mobilisation costs, as the drilling contract on offer calls for operations to start in the first quarter of 2022.

Brazilian arch-rival Constellation Oil Services finished second with the drillships Laguna Star and Amaralina Star with dayrates in the $170,000 ballpark.

It was followed by Valaris with the drillships DS-9 and DS-16 with bids worth close to $185,000.

Other bidders included Sacanb Offshore with the semi-submersible rig Bluewhale I, Petroserv with the semisub SSV Catarina and Transocean with the drillship Deepwater Orion – all with prices above $200,000.

Petrobras is seeking rigs equipped with managed pressure drilling systems to run exploration and development drilling in the Campos and Santos basins in water depths of up to 2400 metres.

Petrobras recently agreed to charter the cylindrically shaped semisub Seven Developer with Sacanb Offshore for a dayrate of less than $140,000 and is due to welcome the Diamond Offshore semisub Ocean Courage and the Constellation drillship Brava Star to its fleet in the coming months.

Petrobras rig fleet

Rig	Contractor	Type	Dayrate	Contract Expires
Petrobras 10000	Transocean	Drillship	$307,000	September 2021
Norbe IX	Ocyan	Drillship	$358,000	September 2021
Laguna Star	Constellation	Drillship	$160,000	October 2021
West Tellus	Seadrill	Drillship	$211,300	December 2021
Norbe VI	Ocyan	Semisub	$140,000	January 2022
Gold Star	Constellation	Semisub	$139,000	February 2022
Lone Star	Constellation	Semisub	$160,000	April 2022
Amaralina Star	Constellation	Drillship	$160,000	April 2022
Etesco Takatsugu J	Etesco	Drillship	$437,000	April 2022
Alpha Star	Constellation	Semisub	$136,000	August 2022
ODN II	Ocyan	Drillship	$335,000	August 2022
ODN I	Ocyan	Drillship	$335,000	September 2022
Norbe VIII	Ocyan	Drillship	$200,000	September 2022
SSV Victoria	Petroserv	Semisub	$160,000	October 2022
Carolina	Petroserv	Drillship	$160,000	October 2022
Deepwater Corcovado	Transocean	Drillship	$194,000	July 2023
Deepwater Mykonos	Transocean	Drillship	$213,000	August 2023
Atlantic Star	Constellation	Semisub	$190,000	January 2024

The oil giant also has an ongoing tender to contract at least one deep-water drilling rig for work offshore Brazil.

Bids in this tender, for which Petrobras has split it into two different packages for operations to start late in 2022 in the highly productive Buzios pre-salt field, are scheduled for 7 May.

Petrobras initially issued that tender with plans to contract as many as five deep-water rigs for development drilling in Buzios, but later pared down the number blaming it on “human error”, adding additional units will be chartered based on operational demand.

The oil giant has 18 rigs on hire in Brazil, including six with Constellation, five with Ocyan, three with Transocean, two with Petroserv and one each with Seadrill and Etesco.

Rigs And Vessels

Local contractor takes pole in Petrobras race for drilling rig offshore Brazil