Brazilian state giant plans to appeal the shipbuilders association Sinaval’s injunction that paused
Brazilian state player Petrobras will reportedly soon seek to overturn the suspension of the bidding process for the large floating production, storage and offloading vessel to be deployed at the giant Libra pre-salt area in the Santos basin off Brazil.
The move follows an injunction won by the country’s shipbuilders association Sinaval that suspended the process because it did not comply with local content rules.
As a result, Petrobras postponed the date to receive bids in the much-anticipated tender.
Sources told Upstream at the time that Petrobras also postponed by a month, to 2 March, the date in which invited contractors will submit offers for the Sepia FPSO. Both floater tenders have been plagues with delays since they were first launched a year and a half ago.
Petrobras delays Libra FPSO tender – again
“There was no surprise Petrobras postponed the delivery of the proposals for the Libra and Sepia FPSOs,” Sinaval said in a statement in Portuguese.
“The new date was set for 11 February, in case Petrobras could cancel the injunction obtained by Sinaval, which filed a lawsuit to question the company’s waiver of content rules,” the association said.
Petrobras has already applied for activation of waiver clauses with the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency to ease local content requirements for the Libra and Sepia FPSOs, arguing that, if it had tried to comply with local content rules, the tenders were around 40% more costly than the values of execution abroad.
The giant will now appeal against the injunction that suspended the bidding for the Libra FPSO, Reuters reported.
No details have yet been provided regarding a timeline for the impending court case.
Local content for Libra and Sepia has been reduced to 25% from 70% in the previous tender.
The new tender completely eliminated local content requirements on the hull, with percentages for topsides fabrication and integration being slashed to 20% and 25%, respectively. The local content for mooring systems has been cut to 60% on average.
Libra, in the pre-salt region of the Santos basin, is Brazil’s largest oil reserve with an estimated 8 to 10 billion barrels of oil. The first production platform is scheduled to start operating in 2020.
Petrobras operates Libra with a 40% stake, and is partnered by Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell on 20%, France’s Total with 20%, China National Petroleum Corporation with 10% and China National Offshore Oil Corporation with 10%.
