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On Monday last week, Petrobras received offers for the 50 POB accommodation vessel public tender. The opportunity sought to hire one walk-to-work vessel to provide accommodation and catering services. With only three vessels presented, Solstad managed to secure first place in both Brazilian/REB and foreign flag batches, with Normand Australis at global day rates of USD 87.445 and USD 82.543 respectively. The rates are inclusive of mob/demob fees and temporary importation taxes since this type of vessel does not qualify for REPETRO regime. The contract duration will be of 740 days. 

AHTS 15000 Mr. Chafic of owners Edison Chouest has been awarded on Petrobras’ AHTS-TS hybrid tender for a 4-years contract. As previously reported on in our weekly market update, the two vessels from CBO that were placed first ended up being disqualified for not considering the installation of battery packs – a mandatory requirement for the tender. As a result, Mr. Chafic will be the first AHTS with hybrid propulsion to work in Brazilian waters. Edison Chouest has one year to conclude the modifications and the implementation of the battery packs onboard.

Last Monday, Petrobras released a newtender for various AHTS vessels with and without ROV services. The vessels are categorized in as of low capacity (180T BP), medium capacity (230T BP) and high capacity (270T BP), with medium and high capacity vessels also required to have deploying devices for 120T torpedo anchors, and Petrobras will once again entertain offers from Brazilian and Foreign flagged vessels. In total, there are 28 different batches, comprising 6 groups where Owners can choose to place vessel offers with delivery windows ranging from February 2024 to April 2025 and contract durations of 3 and 4 years firm. Petrobras will prioritize the chartering of AHTSs equipped with ROVs and earlier delivery windows. The initial deadline for submission of proposals is set to July 24th although due to the size of this tender, it is very likely that it will get postponed.

Solstad Rederi AS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Solstad Offshore ASA, has sold the AHTS Elang Laut 1. The values and the name of the buyer weren’t revealed. The vessel has been in layup in Asia since.

The delivery of the vessel to the new owner took place last Sunday (3). In a statement, Solstd mentioned the sale of the vessel “will result in an immaterial accounting effect”. Still last week, Solstad finally delivered 37 PSVs to Tidewater. The agreement was made in March. This will reduce Solstad´s interest bearing debt by approximately NOK 6 billion (around US$ 574,8 millions).

Enauta temporarily interrupted production in the Atlanta field´s Block BS-4, in the
Santos Basin, Rio de Janeiro state. The expectation of the company is that the return
will happen in the month of September.The Brazilian company stopped production
due to problems with the electrical subsea pumping system. Between May and June
of this year, Enauta promoted a scheduled break for preventive maintenance on
FPSO PetrojarI I. Enauta had an average production of 9.4 boed in June, a decrease
of 4.9% compared to May, largely due to this preventive maintenance of FPSO
Petrojar I.

Petrobras postponed again the deadline to receive proposals for the new FPSO to be deployed at Albacora field. Interested parties will now have until September 15th to send proposals. This is the second time that Petrobras has postponed the deadline for submitting proposals. Initially, participants had
from September 2022 until February of this year.

This same month, the stateowned company postponed the deadline until July 3rd. The FPSO that Petrobras will hire for Albacora field will work for 27 years and will have the capacity to
produce 120.000 barrels of oil per day and process 6 million cubic meters of gas per day.

Shell started drilling the exploratory well Suçuarana-1 in the CM-659 block, in the
Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro. The well is in a water depth of 2,940 meters and
is being drilled by the Maersk Developer semi-submerssible drilling rig.

The block was acquired by the company in October 2019, for BRL 714 million in the 16th bidding
round for blocks under the concession regime. Shell is the main operator in the
area with a 40% share in partnership with Chevron (35%) and QPI (25%). Ibama
(Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) authorized
the company to drill up to six wells in block CM-659, one firm and five optional.

Solstad announced that the delivery of the 37 PSVs to be shipped to Tidewater
should happen in beginning of July. The sale was announced in March of this year.
The move marks the end of Solstad’s operations in the PSV market. The company said the sale is going to reduce its debt and the focus now is on AHTS and on high-end construction support vessels.

Petrobras started drilling the second extension well in block SM-623 where the Sagitário prospect is located, in the Santos Basin. The well received the technical name 3-BRSA-1388D-SPS and is located in a water depth of 1,867 meters.
Petrobras announced, in January 2020 the discovery of signs of oil in the block through the extension well 3-BRSA-1370-SPS. However, the Brazilian oil company said that the initial results of the exploratory campaign were below expectations. Therefore, the state-owned company requested more time for exploratory and evaluation activities in the Sagitário area

Petrobras postponed its ongoing PSV tender that seeks to charter up to 9 vessels. The
new deadline to submit offers is now set to June 27th and along with the postponement,
Petrobras also disclosed updated technical specifications for the various vessel categories
of the tender, taking into account all of the previous revisions applied to the minimum
requirements from last year’s public tender for up to 20 PSVs which this new opportunity
derivates from.

SBM Offshore has announced that the FPSO Sepetiba left the Bomesc shipyard
in China, bound for the Mero II field, in the Santos Basin, in the Rio de Janeiro state.
Before however, the vessel will stop at Angra dos Reis, also in Rio de Janeiro, for inspections
that should happen in September.

Exploration by the FPSO should begin later this year. Likewise Alexandre de Gusmão, this SBM´s has a contract with Petrobras is valid for 22 and a half years for the FPSO Sepetiba. The vessel has the capacity to produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil per day and has a storage capacity of 1,400,000 barrels of oil. Petrobras is the main operator of the Mero II field.