Petrobras to Order $30 Billion of Drill Ships, Rigs

[Tim]

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, owner of the
Western Hemisphere's largest oil discovery in three decades,
plans to order 40 drilling ships and platforms worth about $30
billion for delivery by 2017.
The deep-water drilling ships and semi-submersible rigs
will explore for oil and gas in seas up to 3 kilometers (1.9
miles) deep, Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based company is
known, said in a statement yesterday. The vessels cost about
$750 million each, said J. Michael Drickamer, an oilfield-
service company analyst at Morgan Keegan & Co. in Memphis,
Tennessee.
Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil producer, plans to
spend $112 billion through 2012 to help increase its oil and
natural-gas production and expand its refining and distribution
operations. The discovery of the 5-billion-to-8-billion-barrel
Tupi field and the possibility of other large fields nearby may
require even more spending on offshore equipment, according to
Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa.
``Building all the ships Brazil wants to build will likely
be a challenge,'' Judson Bailey, a shipping and oil analyst with
the Houston office of Jefferies & Co., an investment bank, said
in an interview. ``There is a shortage of almost everything in
the offshore industry.''
Foreign companies already in Brazil building ships include
Singapore's Keppel Corp. and Sembcorp Marine Ltd., Galliano,
Louisiana-based Edison Chouest Offshore, and Oslo-based Aker
Yards ASA. Brazilian companies include construction companies
Construtora Camargo Correa SA, Construtora Queiroz Galvao SA,
Grupo Wilson, Sons, and Construtora Norberto Odebrecht SA.
South Korea, Singapore
Yards in South Korea and Singapore, the world's two biggest
offshore vessel-building nations, are also adding new docks and
extending the lengths of existing ones to work through order
backlogs that stretch to 2012.
Crude oil has risen 95 percent in the past year and reached
a record $130.47 a barrel in New York today. Concerns that oil
supplies are lagging behind demand have boosted prices and
investors have also bought the commodity as a hedge against the
weakening dollar. <br>More on the story HERE<br>

[argo]

a challenge is putting it very very lightly... I wonder how they are going to accomplish this feat?

[El Capitan]

One thing that I am sure of, however, is never underestimate PetroBras. 10 years ago, they were foundering without much direction. Today, they are a force to be reckoned with in the E&amp;P arena.<br><br>10 more years down the road....I wonder!

[argo]

That's good to know, now I might have to learn Portuguese!