Maersk clinches major offshore installation contract in Brazil

Maersk Supply Service has secured its largest solutions contract yet from Libra Consortium for the pre-lay of anchors for a newbuild floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) in Brazil.

The Danish offshore support vessel owner will be responsible for engineering and installation work for one of the largest floating oil production projects worldwide over the next two years. Maersk Supply Service managing director in Latin America Rafael Thome told OSJ the 13-month contract for engineering, procurement, construction and installation with offshore execution will be carried out from June 2021 to July 2022.

Calling it “one of the biggest projects of its kind to be awarded this year”, Mr Thome said the work scope for the contract will require two anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels, each with a bollard pull of 120 tonnes. He said the two AHTS vessels that will be deployed for the contract have not yet been nominated, but Maersk Supply Service has four vessels active in Brazil, two on long-term charter and two operating on the spot market. No decision has yet been made as to whether Maersk would bring in new vessels or use vessels available locally.

The work consists of pre-laying 24 torpedo anchors, each weighing 120 tonnes and 23 m long, in water depths of around 2 km offshore Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. This is part of the Mero 2 project being undertaken by Libra Consortium under a production sharing contract.

“With this contract, we will be ramping up our activities in Brazil significantly and will be further developing our office in Rio de Janeiro,” said Mr Thome.

“We will be working closely with Petrobras as the lead operator for Libra Consortium, and enhancing our solutions capabilities in the Brazilian market.”

Mr Thome said this “flagship project” could potentially “open doors” to other deepwater opportunities in Brazil and Guyana, pointing out that three of the next four FPSOs in the offshore market will be deployed in the two countries. He believes as many as five FPSOs per year will be installed in the region over the next five to 10 years.

"Offshore installation work we undertake here could be replicated for Guyana and West Africa," he said.

Libra Consortium comprises of Petrobras as operator with a 40% interest, Shell Brazil (20%), TotalEnergies (20%), China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Co (10%) and China National Offshore Oil Corp (10%). Additionally, the consortium has the participation of the Pré-Sal Petróleo as manager of the production sharing contract.

The FPSO will have a daily operational capacity rate up to 180,000 barrels of oil, 12M cubic meters per day of gas and will be installed in Mero Field, located in the northwestern area of the Libra block, about 180 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in the pre-salt of the Santos basin. Built and operated by Modec, the FPSO will be chartered for 22 years.

Since 2017, Maersk Supply Service has expanded its offerings as a solutions provider, specialised in towing, mooring and installation of large floating structures.

“With this contract, Maersk Supply Service reaches another key milestone in its solutions journey,” said Maersk Supply Service head of integrated solutions Oliver Trouvé.

“We have been scaling our solutions business since 2017 and have now won and successfully executed material projects in Africa, Latin America and Europe for energy majors,” he said.

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