Petrobras’ Sergipe FPSO tenders draw sole bidder

Only one company submitted bids for the two FPSO chartering contracts for federal oil company Petrobras’ Sergipe deepwater (SEAP) project, in the Sergipe-Alagoas basin in Brazil’s northeast region. 

Brazilian contractor IFM Construções e Montagens Industriais offered 49.4bn reais (US$9.16bn) for each of the 21-year contracts for the SEAP I and SEAP II units.

Launched in April 2023, the tenders are for FPSOs with the capacity to produce 120,000b/d of oil and 10-12Mm3/d (million cubic meters per day) of gas each, with minimum local content of 40% for SEAP I and 30% for SEAP II.

IFM does not have any experience in chattering FPSOs, which could lead Petrobras to cancel and relaunch the tenders. 

"To qualify, the company must have experience with FPSOs, having built one before of at least 20,000t," a local industry source told BNamericas, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

IFM did not reply when contacted by BNamericas

A previous attempt to contract the units was called off in May 2022 after Petrobras disqualified Ocyan for including conditions that were not foreseen in the tender rules, as well as for submitting a price outside the expected parameters.  

Earlier this year, Brazil’s merchant marine fund (FMM) approved priority financing of 8.5bn reais for the construction of the FPSOs. 

The approval marked a key milestone for the project, which has been delayed for some years due to the likes of financing difficulties.  

Petrobras’ 2024-28 business plan, unveiled at the end of 2023, pushed back the startup date of the FPSOs from 2027 to 2028.