Mitsui, MOL and Marubeni are to invest in a long-term charter to provide an FPSO for Petrobras’s ultra-deepwater Iracema Norte area offshore Brazil.

The floating production unit will be operated by Modec on the pre-salt oil field, with the four Japanese companies entering into definitive agreements for the charter. The project follows on from a separate long-term charter of an FPSO to be used on the Iracema Sul (formerly Cernambi Sul) area, in which the companies invested through the Cernambi Sul MV24 B.V subsidiary company.

For this latest FPSO project Mitsui, MOL and Marubeni will invest in Cernambi Norte MV26 B.V. (MV26), a Dutch company established by Modec. MV26 has signed a long-term chartering agreement with Tupi B.V., a Dutch company owned by Petrobras Netherlands B.V. (65%), BG Overseas Holding Ltd. (25%), and Galp Sinopec Brazil Services B.V. (10%).

The FPSO will be chartered to Tupi B.V. for 20 years under this chartering agreement signed in February.
Construction of the floater will involve the conversion of a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier), to be named FPSO Cidade de ITAGUAÍ MV26 upon its completion. It will be deployed to the Iracema Norte area of the BM-S-11 block in the fourth quarter of 2015. The oil is contained in the pre-salt layer approximately 5,000 m (16,405 ft) beneath the seabed.

Modec and Mitsui have of course already provided three FPSOs for Brazilian pre-salt oil fields, with this to be their fourth such project. It is the third project of its type for MOL and the second for Marubeni.

The Schahin Group, the joint bidder with Modec for this project as the local partner in Brazil, plans to invest up to 15% in MV26 by the start of the FPSO charter.

The FPSO will have an oil processing capacity of 150,000 b/d, a gas processing capacity of 280 MMcf/d, oil storage of 1.6 MMbbl, and be a spread-moored unit, located in a water depth of 2,240 m (7,349 ft).