BNDES approves US$642mn financing for Campos platforms

Brazil's national development bank BNDES has approved US$642mn in loans for the construction of the P-51 semi-submersible platform and the P-54 floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) in the Campos basin, BNDES said in a statement. Federal energy company Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) contracted the construction of the P-51 and P-54 platforms to increase production in the Marlim Sul and Roncador deepwater fields in the Campos basin. The two oil and gas production units, each with output capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil a day (b/d) and 6 million cubic meters of gas, will be built in Brazil. The financing is for the acquisition of locally made equipment to meet a national content requirement of at least 60%. The P-51 was contracted to the FSTP group and construction started last July, with production scheduled to start at end-2007. The platform is estimated to cost 2.3bn reais (US$848mn) and is designed to produce 180,000b/d. The FSTP group is made up of Singapore shipmaker Keppel (NYSE: TKP), Brazilian engineering firm Pem Setal and French engineering company Technip. Britain's Rolls-Royce will supply the power generation module and Italy's Nuovo Pignone the compression module. The P-54 was contracted for 2.4bn reais from Singapore's Jurong Shipyard and its Brazilian subsidiary MauráJurong shipyard in Rio de Janeiro. Jurong will convert the Barao de Mauá tanker, GE Energy will provide the generation module and US company Dresser Rand the gas compression module. BNDES has made available up to US$370mn to the FSTP group and up to US$272mn to the Mauá Jurong shipyard.