Brazil expected to see additional demand for subsea tiebacks

Brazil is expected to see further demand for oil and gas subsea tiebacks over the next years, resulting in large, integrated contracts, a source familiar with the matter told BNamericas. 

A subsea tieback is an engineering process where a new oil and gas discovery is connected to an existing production unit. 

New production projects such as Wahoo in the Campos basin and Neon in Santos, operated by PRIO and Karoon, respectively, are among the potential cases. 

The Brazilian company intends to connect Wahoo to the Valente FPSO, which is installed in the Frade field, while the Australian firm is considering the possibility of linking Neon to the Cidade de Itajaí FPSO in the Baúna field. 

Both PRIO and Karoon have previous subsea tieback experiences, with the connection of the Tubarão Martelo and Polvo fields and the Patola/Piracaba discoveries with Baúna. 

"We’ll start to see new tiebacks, with an integrated scope of SURF [subsea, umbilicals, risers and flowlines], EPCI, with a boosting system, given the layout and production characteristics of the fields," the source said.

Among the equipment required are subsea pipelines - flexible or rigid, depending on the layout adopted -, manifolds and multiphase pumping systems.

The new opportunities follow a series of subsea engineering, procurement, construction and installation EPCI tenders and contracts related to Petrobras’ Mero and Búzios fields in the Santos basin pre-salt. 

In recent years, the state-run firm inked deals with TechnipFMC for the Mero 1 and 2 and Búzios 6 fields, Subsea 7 (Mero 3 and 4 and Búzios 8) and Saipem (Búzios 7) – all worth between US$500mn and US$1bn. 

Now, Petrobras is tendering the subsea EPCI for Búzios 9, 10 and 11, where the same multinational groups stand out as the main candidates to be hired. 

Meanwhile, the federal oil giant is carrying out tenders to contract over 60 wet Christmas trees (i.e., subsea set of valves), with commercial proposals due to be submitted on February 29 and March 1. 

Among the main suppliers of wet Christmas trees for Petrobras and other oil companies in Brazil are Baker Hughes, Onesubsea and TechnipFMC.