Samsung, Hyundai, Daewoo prepare for Petrobras oil platform tender - sources

Modec

28/01/2021 05:00

By Sabrina Valle and Marta Nogueira
    RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Three consortia including
Asian shipyards are preparing to compete to build Brazil's
Petrobras'  PETR4.SA  first two in-house platforms in more than
seven years, according to four people familiar with the tender
who declined to be named as the information is private. 
    Samsung Heavy Industries Co  010140.KS , Hyundai Heavy
Industries Holding Co Ltd  267250.KS  and Daewoo Heavy
Industries & Machinery Ltd have formed separate consortia that
are expected to bid after seven months of preparations, the
sources said. Offers are due on Monday, Feb. 1.
    Samsung and Petrobras declined to comment. Daewoo and
Hyundai did not immediately responded to comment requests. 
    The competition marks Petrobras' comeback as a key market
for Asian shipyards. 
    Similarly sized units have cost before around $1.7 billion
each to be built, one of the sources said. Petroleo Brasileiro
SA, as the state-controlled company is known, is hiring units
able to produce 180,000 barrels per day and 7.2 cubic meters of
gas, each.
    The platforms are effectively massive ships with deep-water
drilling equipment that are vital for offshore oil exploration.
They are known as FPSOs, or a floating production storage and
offloading units.
    The debate on where Petrobras should build its own platforms
has been a key issue in presidential campaigns over the past two
decades in Brazil.
    Construction of the hull is labor-intensive, leading past
administrations to create domestic-content rules. Those have
been eased after a corruption scandal, although the exact local
content percentage will only be known once a winner is selected.
    Brazil's biggest-ever corruption investigation - known as
Carwash - exposed multi-billion dollar bribe payments from
Petrobras suppliers aimed at securing contracts, including for
platform construction in Brazil and in Asia. 
    Buried in debt, Petrobras spent more than seven years only
leasing its platforms, using long-term contracts that can be
amortized over 20 years. Dutch-based SBM Offshore NV  SBMO.AS 
and Japan's Modec Inc  6269.T  split the biggest contracts.
    Modec and SBM were pre-qualified to participate but have
dropped out of the competition, preferring the leasing model in
which they can use their own engineering instead of Petrobras',
like the current bid.


 (Reporting by Sabrina Valle and Marta Nogueira
Editing by Marguerita Choy)
 ((Sabrina.Valle@thomsonreuters.com;))