Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Italian contractor Saipem have secured an order for a floating production, storage and offloading unit for Brazilian oil major Petrobras worth $2.3bn.
The P-79 will be deployed on the Buzios offshore field in Brazil when delivered, Saipem said in a statement. DSME is yet to issue a statement about the order.
The FPSO vessel will have a production capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and 7.2m cbm of gas per day, with a storage capacity of 2m barrels of oil.
Saipem and DSME will execute the entire FPSO project, which encompasses the engineering, procurement, fabrication and integration of the topsides of the FPSO unit and the installation of the mooring systems. They are also responsible for hook-up, commissioning and start-up.
Maurizio Coratella, chief operating officer of Saipem’s onshore engineering and construction division, said: “This project represents a key step forward in our portfolio diversification strategy.
“It is also a further demonstration of trust of our clients in our consolidated capability to manage complex, technologically advanced projects in compliance with the highest safety and environmental standards.”
The Buzios field, the world’s largest deepwater oil field, is located in the pre-salt Santos Basin, roughly 200 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro at water depths ranging from 1,600 metres to 2,100 metres.
The contract for Petrobras follows a similar one placed in early May, which was awarded to a joint venture of Keppel Corp and Hyundai Heavy Industries.
DSME has had a relatively weak start to the year with a year-to-date order run-rate of only 33% as of the end of May, according to analysts.
In contrast, Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering (KSOE), Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard have seen order run-rates in the region of 63% to 67% so far this year.
However, DSME has been tipped as being inline to share HMM’s upcoming $1.4bn newbuilding order for 12 13,000-teu containerships with HHI.
“The choice of these two shouldn’t come as much of a surprise with KDB controlling both HMM and DSME and partnered up with HHI for the long running HHI/DSME merger discussions,” Affinity (Shipping) said in a recent market report.
Analysts said the offshore new order pipeline in 2021 has been increasing this year as oil prices have remained above $60 per barrel and South Korea shipbuilders are said to be waiting for bidding results for four to five offshore projects.
