09/24/2008 15h51
Petrobras opens public tender of US$ 2 billion for the pre-salt layer
O Estado de S. Paulo - 09/24/2008
Petrobras has already started the purchases in a new strategy, which aims to attract equipment producers to the country. The state-owned company is making a public tender for the purchase of 300 "Christmas Trees" - a set of valves that regulate oil wells. With a market value of US$ 2 billion, the contract is a something new. Until now, the company used to make public tenders in small packages and directed to each production camp. Considering other pieces of equipment, the expectation is that until the end of this year the public tenders get to US$ 10 billion. Besides "Christmas Trees", the company should publish other orders of risers (tubes that connect the platform to the well), manifolds (set of valves) and other pieces of equipment for the productive systems very soon. For the area where the Tupi block is located, in the Santos Basin, because of the enormous depth of the reserves (from 6 thousand to 7 thousand meters), the president of Petrobras evaluated that the cost of each system should be nearly US$ 7 billion. According to a sector expert, each of those ten platforms that will be installed in Tupi (SP) will be connected to ten wells. With this, the orders for Tupi alone should reach US$ 70 billion. From that total, Petrobras is making the public tender for the first 12 drilling rigs and the 10 production platforms at this moment. Areas such as Iara, Guará, Tupi, Carioca, and Caramba have not been considered yet. Besides those pieces of equipment, Petrobras will have to bear the investments for the outflow of the oil and gas production and the logistics that will involve the productive systems. This means that, in addition to the 49 oil-tankers already ordered by the company's subsidiary, another 50 should be auctioned next year, at the approximate cost of US$ 5 billion. In the part of the gas outflow, Petrobras has already concluded the public tender for the construction of a duct connecting the Tupi area to the field of Mexilhão, whose production is expected to begin next year.
