11/01/2007 14h57

Schain bets on the oil & gas sector

Valor Econômico – 11/01/2007

The Schahin group has contracted an US$ 800 million syndicated loan in order to assure the construction of two oil rigs ordered by Petrobrás. The agreement with a "pool" of 15 banks signals the group's interest in expanding the participation in the oil and gas industry - a move in the middle of the strong increase in the prices of the fossil fuels. The resources obtained from the group of banks will be used to finance two semi-submersible rigs that are being constructed by the Yantai Raffles Shipyard, in China, at the request of Schahin, which has been awarded Petrobrás' public tender last year in July. Schahin will be in charge of the operation of both rigs. The value of both contracts reaches US$ 1 billion. The difference from the US$ 800 million obtained from the financial institutions will be borne by Schahin's own resources. It is expected that the two probes start their operations in the Brazilian coast in 2009 and 2010, searching for oil in deep waters. The contracts are for five and seven years, extendable for equal periods. The rigs have been designed to reach 2.4 thousand and 2 thousand meters of depth. The oil and gas division of Schahin Engenharia (Schain Engineering), the company that gathers the non-financial assets of the group, currently represents 40% of the revenues projected for this year, almost R$ 1 billion (US$ 574.7 million). The company has also operations in the areas of engineering, civil construction, energy and telecommunications. In 2006, the company revenues were R$ 455 million (US$ 261.5 million). Founded in the middle of the 1980s, the oil and gas division started rendering Petrobras the services of drilling and maintenance of wells using jack-up rigs. As a result of the market development, Schahin got specialized and moved on to the operation of drillships to exploring oil in deep waters. So far, the company has already successfully drilled more than 100 wells in the Brazilian coast.