Recently, Petrobras canceled a plan to charter a floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO) for the Barracuda-Caratinga field resumption project.
Petrobras initiated the tender process for the FPSO back in the summer of 2023, but the process was postponed several times due to lack of active participation by FPSO owners. The company requires the winning unit to have a production capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil and 6 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
One of the main reasons for the previous cold tenders was Petrobras’ preference for a charter-operate model, which led owners who had previously participated in such tenders to move on to other projects.
It was not until the fall of 2024 that Shapoorji Pallonji Energy, the Indian owner of the floating production unit, submitted an offer and became the only company to participate in this FPSO tender, which was the first time an Indian company participated in a Petrobras tender.
However, Petrobras deemed the daily rental rate of $1.636 million proposed by the Indian shipowner excessively high and ultimately canceled the tender. The company stated that the cancellation was due to “uncontrollable and unforeseen circumstances that altered the economic feasibility of the project under the current contract model.”
The Brazilian giant is now preparing to open a new round of tenders by the end of this year, which will be based on the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model. In theory, this model is expected to attract more companies to participate. Under this model, the builder of the FPSO would operate it for a few years after completion, after which ownership would be handed over to Petrobras, which would also mean the creation of a new-build FPSO project.
The BOT model will also be applied to the two FPSO projects in Sergipe-Alagoas as well as the Albacora Field Rehabilitation Project.
The FPSO required for the Barracuda-Caratinga Field Rehabilitation Project is expected to be operational in 2029, in accordance with Petrobras’ 2025-2029 Business Plan.