Teekay Offshore is set to sign a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Petrobras to supply an FPSO for the operator’s ultradeepwater Libra Field in the Santos Basin offshore Brazil.

The floating production specialist was confident enough to state it was due to sign the LoI with the Brazilian major “today” in an investor presentation last week—although nothing formal has yet been confirmed by either company since then.

However, the contractor has been in the driving seat as the nominated lead commercial bidder to supply the FPSO for some time (see DI, 11 August 2014, page 8), with the floater to act as an early well test unit on a 12-year contract starting early in 2017.

Total capex on the FPSO on a 50% basis, said Teekay, will be $485 million, with the other half of the $970 million total to be paid by Teekay’s equal joint venture (JV) Brazilian partner, Odebrecht Oil and Gas.

An existing Teekay shuttle tanker, the 1995-built Navion Norvegia, will be used for the FPSO conversion at the Jurong Shipyard in Singapore. The FPSO will be owned and operated by the JV. A dayrate of about $543,000 previously has been talked about for the floater, although that still remains to be confirmed.

Libra is of course the largest oil field in Brazil, with recoverable presalt reserves currently put at up to 12 Bbbl of oil. The FPSO is expected to carry out at least five or six extended well tests on Libra, with Petrobras planning to use larger-diameter pipes of eight inches for the tests. The Libra EWTs also are expected to be the first to feature gas injection due to a higher gas-oil ratio than in other presalt areas.

Teekay has big plans for Brazil and its partnership with Odebrecht, saying it expects to bid on at least four FPSO projects there within the next two years.

• A tender for the supply of 680 km of flexible risers and flowlines for use with FPSO vessels to be deployed in the deepwater Santos basin has been issued by Petrobras, with bids wanted back in this month.

The state-owned major wants all commercial bids to be received by mid-October, as it tries to get the deals signed and sealed by second-quarter 2015. The operator divided the tender into four lots, with only one company apparently allowed to win each package.

The prize pick is Lot A, which is for 400 km of flexible risers and flowlines, while lot B is for 190 km. In each case, Petrobras is asking for risers with diameters of 6 in. and 8 in. to handle harsh presalt conditions.

The other two lots are smaller: Lot C and D are for packages of 50 km and 40 km of flexible risers respectively, with diameters ranging from 4 in. to 8 in.