SBM Offshore, partners win $3.5 bln Petrobras contract

CW8888: Keppel Shipyard's ongoing projects for SBM Offshore are the conversion of FPSO OSX-2 for Brazil as well as modification and upgrading of FPSO N'Goma for Angola. Will the below news translate to more projects for Keppel?



(Reuters) - SBM Offshore and its partners have won a $3.5 billion contract from Brazilian oil company Petrobras to build two oil platforms, the Dutch maritime services firm said on Tuesday.

The order is the biggest-ever for SBM Offshore and is for so-called floating, production, storage and offloading platforms (FPSOs), its main area of business.

SBM Offshore settled a long-running dispute two weeks ago over a Norwegian project that involved the production of a so-called mobile offshore production unit (MOPU), and on which SBM had to write down $1.4 billion over three years.

It is planning a rights issue of 10 percent of its share capital to cope with the write down.

 

SBM Offshore and its partners, including Brazil's Queiroz Galvao Oil & Gas SA, will work in a joint venture to deliver two FPSOs in 2015 and 2016, SBM Offshore said in a statement.

The joint venture will manage the two platforms for 20 years, and contract finalisation is expected by the second quarter of 2013, SBM Offshore said.

"The two FPSO's represent the biggest contract ever awarded to us, underlining our unparalleled expertise and leading position in the market for large-scale tanker conversions to FPSOs," SBM Offshore Chief Executive Bruno Chabas said.