Petrobras: $10 Billion in Offshore Production Facilities Aimed for Santos Basin [REPORT]

RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)–Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR), or Petrobras, is expected to receive up to $7 billion worth of bids to complete eight offshore oil platforms in a tender this week, local business daily Valor Economico reported Monday.

The bids will cover modules and integration for eight floating production, storage and offloading vessels that will be installed at pre-salt fields in the Santos Basin, where a cluster of oil discoveries was made more than four miles under the sea. Brazil has said the deposits could contain 50 billion barrels of oil.

Eight hulls are currently under construction at a shipyard in Rio Grande do Sul state, at a cost of about $3.46 billion. The next contract, valued at between $5 billion and $7 billion, will install and integrate production modules on the hulls, Valor said. The eight FPSOs are clones, numbered P-66 to P-73, designed to cut costs and speed construction. The first platform, the P-66 FPSO, is expected to be completed by November 2013.

The bids are expected to be turned in Tuesday, Valor said.

The FPSOs will be installed at Petrobras-operated fields in the BM-S-9 and BM-S-11 blocks in the Santos Basin. BG Group (BG.LN), Galp Energia (GALP.LB) and Repsol YPF (REP) are also partners in the fields.

Newspaper website: www.valor.com.br

-By Jeff Fick, Dow Jones Newswires