US-based Excelerate Energy has ordered its floating storage and regasification unit for the Petrobras contract it has bagged from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) at a cost of $280m.
DSME announced that the 170,000-cbm FSRU is due for delivery in 2014.
TradeWinds reported last week that Petrobras is poised to name Excelerate as the winner of the job, dubbed VT3 by the state energy company, to provide an FSRU for its planned third floating LNG import terminal.
Nearest rival Golar LNG, in what is said to have been a fiercely fought contest, has already said it does not expect to win the business. Hoegh LNG was also shortlisted for the job. Both Hoegh and Golar also have uncommitted FSRU newbuildings on order in South Korea.
Petrobras wants to see the FSRU in place by 2013 and Excelerate is expected to provide one of its 150,900-cbm regas ships as a bridging vessel to fill in before the delivery of the FSRU.
An announcement on the business is expected from the Brazilian giant this week.
In its tender for the job Petrobras, which currently has two FSRUs on charter from Golar, offered a 15-year time-charter deal on the new FSRU and requested a unit that will be capable of delivering 20 million cubic metres per day of gas.
Petrobras plans to site the new large sized FSRU at its existing Guanabara Bay LNG import facility and move the unit moored there to a new location in Baia de Todos os Santos, off Bahia state.
