The latest floating production unit is heading out to a presalt Santos Basin field after being integrated and completed in a Brazilian shipyard, underlining the local content requirement demanded in the country’s offshore sector.

The FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela was completed at the Niteroi-Rio based Brasa shipyard, where 10 of the of the 18 topsides modules on the floater weighing a total of 12,500 tonnes were completed and integrated with the shipshaped hull. “She places Brasa on the radar for mega FPSO projects in Brazil,” said to Rodrigo Gomes, business development manager at Brasa. “The yard is the industry’s example of how local content can positively affect and drive the ‘Brazilianization’ of naval construction,” he added.

Following hull conversion work completed in China last year, the Cidade de Ilhabela arrived at the Brasa yard in January this year. Once there, the ship spent eight months undergoing outfitting including the installation of the 18 topsides modules.

She is owned by a joint venture between SBM Offshore, Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás SA (QGOG) and Mitsubishi Corp., which will also operate the unit under a 20-year lease contract on the deepwater Sapinhoa field in block BM-S-9. Petrobras is the operator of the block with a 45% stake, partnered by BG E&P (30%) and Repsol (25%).

Brasa will shortly see the arrival of two more floating production units destined for presalt fields: the Cidade de Maricá, which will then be followed by her twin Cidade de Saquarema. Both have undergone outfitting and conversion in China.

The pair are due to have six modules installed at the Brasa yard using the heavy lift crane barge Pelicano-1 and both are destined for the BM-S-11 Lula field, where they will be located in approximately 2,300 m (7,544 ft) of water under 20-year charters.

These two units will each provide up to 1.6 MMbbl of storage and, once fitted with 22,000 tons of topsides, will be capable of producing 150,000 b/d of oil, processing up to 200,000 b/d of water and providing up to 211 MMcf/d of gas treatment.

Brasa was established in July 2012 with the specific aim of providing a construction and integration site for mega-FPSO projects, and the Cidade de Ilhabela is the first unit to be completed at quay number two there. The yard was formed as a 50/50 venture between Brazil’s Synergy Group and SBM Offshore.