After departing to Guyana in October last year to perform core sampling activities as noticed by WSB, the HOS Brass Ring has made it safely back to Guanabara Bay anchorage. The vessel is being refitted and will soon be trading in Brazilian waters.
Author: Alexandre Vilela
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SS Pantanal auction
ICBC Leasing, the Chinese financial institution, has announced the sale of the deepwater semi-submersible drilling rig SS Pantanal. The unit was built by Yantai CIMC Raffles Shipyard, delivered in November 2010 and, upon completing final preparations and mobilisation, operated in Brazil from 2012 to 2014. The rig was laid up in Porto do Açu since 2015 and in early 2021 was transported by a Cosco heavy lift to Indonesia where she had remained in lay up since her arrival. According to the auction manager, Zhejiang Shipping Exchange, all the machinery and equipment are shut down and some areas and tanks cannot be presently accessed and inspected. Further, it has not been dry-docked since delivery. The starting price is USD 8 million with bid increments at multiples of USD 0.02 million. Interested parties have until February 9th to register as participants.
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Hybrid AHTS tender
Last Friday, Petrobras received offers for the AHTS tender with hybrid propulsion (battery packs). The opportunity aims the hire of up to 2 vessels for a 4-year firm contract period with mobilization expected between July and September this year or 120 days after contract signature, whichever occurs latest. There was some concern over the battery packs requirement however, even with many requests not accepted by Petrobras during the tender process and several postponements of the submission deadline, the opportunity displayed a decent number of competitors, granted this was the first ever public tender to demand a hybrid propulsion solution. Amongst a total of 9 vessels presented to Petrobras, CBO snatched the first two places at USD 39.650,00/day with their AHTSs acquired from Finarge – AH Liguria and AH Valletta. Although bidders had to comply with the battery requirement, the winning rates did not wander too far from the USD 35.000 winning day rate in the previous AHTS tender which did not require any kind of hybrid propulsion. Despite not waiving the hybrid propulsion while understanding the technical and logistics challenges involved in such adaptation, Petrobras granted the awarded vessels a 12 month-window from the start of the contract to be fully compliant with this requirement.
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3D research to be made in Foz do Amzonas basin
Companies CGG and TGS announced this week the second phase of the multiclient 3D research for the Foz do Amazonas basin, located in the equatorial margin off the north coast of Brazil. The data supplying companies shall provide high quality 3D coverage of 11.425 square kilometres that are going to be essential for the explorations in the region. Both companies see this new project as a strengthening and broadening of their positions and library data as well as a deeper understanding of the seabed.
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Petrobras PSV tender
At the end of last week, Petrobras received the offers for 3 of the 4 issued PSV tenders. The public opportunity for up to 20 PSVs had a total of 34 vessels (PSVs 3000, 4000 and 4500 DWT amongst them) presented in 17 of the 20 batches available for bidders’ choice. The most competitive offers were presented by CBO at USD 29,990.00/day, on the 4 years firm contract period batches, and rates ranged all the way till just above USD 40,000.00/day. The smaller vessels (DWT 3000) averaged a daily rate of USD 26.000,00 with the most competitive offer from WSUT at USD 24.990,00/day. Although both Brazilian and Foreign flag vessels were allowed to bid, most of the offers came from Brazilian/REB units with just 4 vessels presented under foreign flag. The Mero and ‘Búzios/Roncador’ opportunities were closed invitation processes (SEP) therefore all offers, and details are not publicized, although we have sent our closest clients the required information. Participants expect that the Brazilian flag tonnage will prevail, Petrobras to move fast and negotiate all opportunities in parallel.
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Petrobras OSRV tender
Petrobras’ tender for the contracting of up to four OSRVs closed yesterday with the offers delivered. Owners are granted 120 days to mobilize the vessel with commencement scheduled for October 2023. Contract period is of 1460 days firm. Bram Offshore stroke the first four positions (C-Ambassador, C-Admiral, C-Sailor, C-Aclaim) at USD 18.222,00 followed by Marlin Yare and Singrar from Marlin Navegação and Navemestra respectively at USD 18.300,00 and USD 19.000,00. Petrobras’ final tender results with awards shall come out in the following weeks with rounds of technical approvals followed by negotiations.
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Decommissioning activity (P&A)
Helix Energy Solutions recently announced a new deepwater well decommissioning (P&A) contract with Shell Brasil. The project is expected to start in 2024 with a 1-year firm contract period for the Bijupirá&Salema fields, located in Campos Basin. Helix will employ the riser-based well intervention vessel Q7000 for this project. The DP3 equipped vessel can perform production enhancement operations such as well clean-up and field development support as well as decommissioning activities in water depths up to 3,000 meters. Shell Brasil acquired the fields and FPSO Fluminense from Enterprise Oil in the early 2000’s becoming a pioneer on the offshore production in Brazil.
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Equinor drilling in Bacalhau
Equinor started drilling in Bacalhau field with drillship West Saturn. The Norwegian oil company is the first international operator to develop a pre-salt field in Brazil. Equinor counts with three large PSVs 4500 to support the campaign: CBO Wiser, Rem Mistral and Siddis Sailor all under Grupo CBO operation. West Saturn is chartered in for four years at Bacalhau field. In 2023, Valaris DS-17 will also be under charter for 540 days. Besides Bacalhau, Equinor concluded phase 2 of the Peregrino development phase in Campos Basin through the installation of a 3rd wellhead, Peregrino C. This milestone will extend the field life till 2040.
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New contract for Maersk Vega
PSV 4500 Maersk Vega has been awarded a long-term contract with Trident Energy in Brazil. The Brazilian built DP2 vessel is being mobilized in Guanabara Bay. As reported in our previous Weekly Market Update, Trident recently chartered PSV 4500 Normand Titus from Solstad for one year firm. Maersk Vega and Normand Titus join PSV 3000 Mandrião from WSUT. All vessels are employed at Pampo and Enchova fields in Campos Basin.
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Extend or re-bid?
As the market tights up, Petrobras sets the foot on the throttle to extend a pack of contracts expiring in 2022. However, that doesn’t mean less competition in currently open tenders. The extended contracts feature clauses where owners can bid on tenders, and in case of a delivery date (of the tender) falling within the extended contract period, the vessel can migrate from the extended contract into the new contract without any penalties. Petrobras playing smart. This is an interesting move that also benefits the owners and makes everyone comfortable. Win-win.
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Petrobras AHTS tender results
Last Friday Petrobras disclosed the partial results for lots A and B of the Multiple AHTS 18.000 tender. The opportunity, originally opened to offers over one year ago, had one winning proposal on for each of the two lots. AHTS Theseus Z was qualified by Petrobras in Lot A with a renegotiated day rate of USD 49.459,20, negotiated down from the initial USD 57.000,00 bid by the end of the reverse auction. In Lot B, Petrobras qualified Apollo Z for the AHTS-R scope, at an also discounted day rate of USD 65.057,90 from the starting USD 90.000,00/day proposed in the reverse auction. Today was the last day for other bidders in the process to present any claims towards Petrobras´ award decision.
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Contract extension for DOF
Petrobras has awarded DOF a contract extension for AHTS Skandi Amazonas. The Norwegian vessel owner announced that the vessel shall remain in operation for the Brazilian national oil company until March 2023. The 21000bhp AHTS, built 2011, is currently flying Brazilian flag and has a 324 ton bollard pull capacity.