Category: Last News

The National Petroleum Agency (ANP) reported that production in the pre-salt totalled 3.268 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, an increase of 2,3% compared to January. This volume surpasses the previous record of 3.142 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, recorded in October 2022. Furthermore, the total Brazilian oil production including pre-salt, post salt and other fields reached 4.183 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. The Tupi field, in Santos Basin pre-salt, was the largest producer of oil registering 824.5 thousand barrels of oil per day. The FPSO with the highest oil and natural gas production was the FPSO Guanabara, which produced 178,776 thousand barrels of oil per day in the Mero field.

The Australian oil company has shut down Baúna´s field production due to a containment incident associated with the high-pressure flare on FPSO Cidade de Itajaí. According to the company, production stoppage happened on March 28th, 2023 in a safe and controlled manner. Altera&Ocyan, the FPSO operators, investigated the source of the leak and made the necessary repairs by March 30th. However, Karoon and Altera&Ocyan have decided to postpone production restart to undertake a full inspection and testing of associated systems. It is expected that production will restart by mid-April.

Last Monday, Petrobras and Equinor have signed a LOI to further extend their cooperation in offshore wind power in Brazil. This cooperation aims to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of seven different projects on the Brazilian coast. The combined power generation of the projects is estimated at 14,5GW. The offshore wind segment is seen with high hopes to support and advance the energy transition worldwide and especially in Brazil, where Petrobras intends to allocate more and more resources into low carbon emission projects. The kick-off of a wind offshore industry in Brazil could serve as incentive for more Construction Support Vessels (CSVs) to be either built or dispatched for projects in the country, a vessel category with very high utilization and that most offshore support owners are shifting their focus to.

Tidewater and Solstad have jointly announced a S&P agreement for 37 PSVs from Solstad’s global fleet. The agreement will see Solstad’s exit from the segment, shifting the company’s focus to high-end AHTS and subsea vessels which can service not only the oil and gas industry but the offshore renewables segment as well. As for Tidewater, this agreement strengthens their position as one of the leading global OSV operators, with an increased fleet totalling 228 vessels. With the acquisition, Tidewater’s fleet also becomes one of the youngest in the globe as well as the largest in terms of hybrid propulsion vessels. The PSV market has heated up worldwide and Tidewater’s new modern fleet will lift them as major player in every region of the world.

The Danish origin company has been awarded with 3 new contracts for its L-types AHTS’s in Brazil. The term contracts are for 3 years firm period. The scope of work involved in the contract is a broad variety of anchor handling activities and drilling rig movements. Maersk Leader, Maersk Lancer and Maersk Launcher are the vessels involved in these contracts. Besides above mentioned L-types, Maersk also have working in Brazil another 2 T-types, 1 M-Types AHTS’s and 2 V-types PSVs.

Royal-Dutch Shell has been active in the spot market these past couple of weeks. The IOC who was already out in the market for a prompt AHTS to support FPSO Espírito Santo in BC-10 field, also released a requirement for a PSV this Wednesday. The demand expects to see the PSV chartered for a firm period of 28 days with options to be declared. The commencement window for this operation is between March-April 2023. The market is tight, however there are a few candidates coming available from other contracts that might take the deal.

3R Petroleum said that it is ready to resume production at the Papa-terra cluster after a stoppage due to an issue caused by the energy generation system of the Tension Leg Wellhead Platform (TLWP) 3R-2. Before the stoppage, Papa-terra was operated with 4 production wells and an average production of 17,000 barrels per day.

Tuesday this week, Petrobras released a third partial result notification to their public PSV tender, originally intended to hire up to 20 vessels. In the new notice, Petrobras qualified one more vessel, reaching a total of 14 vessels awarded out of the 34 originally presented in the opportunity. Petrobras have also officially disqualified a total of 12 vessels, 3 for not meeting set delivery windows and 9 for excessive pricing (over Petrobras designated budget for the tender). With yet another partial disclosure, 8 vessels remain unassessed by Petrobras which leaves the question: with 3 other SEP tendering processes also closed and pending awards for up 18 more vessels and a very limited number of candidates left, can Petrobras afford themselves to fix even more vessels for their public tender? The 3 other closed opportunities are intended to charter similar PSVs for campaigns at Búzios, Roncador, Mero and Tupi fields, all operated by Petrobras under JVs with several different Oil Companies.

Dutch SBM Offshore announced the construction of the 3 FPSOs to be chartered by Petrobras is proceeding. The production units, all being built in China, have been impacted by the frequent restrictions placed in the country to contain expected periodical surges of COVID-19 cases. SBM will deliver two units for Mero field, namely FPSO Sepetiba (Mero 2) and FPSO Alexandre de Gusmão (Mero 4), which are allegedly 75% and 25-50% complete, respectively and one unit to Búzios field, namely FPSO Almirante Tamandaré (Búzios 7), with 50-75% of construction complete. According to Petrobras´ latest strategic plan, the Mero 2 and Mero 4 units are expected to kick-off production in 2023 and 2025 whilst the Búzios 7 by 2024.

Brazilian independent oil company Enauta has announced that FPSO Petrojarl I has started producing once again after a preventive maintenance on its water-cooling system. The company declared that the production unit has been producing in 98% uptime over the last three months after recertification process has been concluded. Petrojarl I has a production capacity of 30,000 barrels of oil per day and a storage capacity of 180,000 barrels. She is located at Atlanta field in santos Basin and fully owned by Enauta.

Shell have returned to their quest of finding an AHTS vessel to assist in the heading control of FPSO Espírito Santo and likely other internal demands from their producing fields as well. The Dutch company had already issued a spot requirement before the Carnival holidays but, due to an extremely high utilization of AHTS vessels in Brazil, there are no available candidates at the moment. The requirement is firm for 3 days with additional 15 days options and commencement window set for March 2nd or earlier, in case any options arise.

DOF Subsea Brasil has secured a contract for a SURF (Subsea Umbilical Riser and Flowline) project in Brazil. The Norwegian base offshore support company will mobilize RSV Geoholm for the contract. Mobilization is set to start in March 2023. The term contract is for 180 firm days with extension options to be agreed. The Charterer has not yet been disclosed, we shall report further when more info is made available.