More Subsea Oil & Gas News in Latin America

Petrobras has awarded Technip a five-year frame agreement to supply 1,400 km (870 mi) flexible pipes.

Working in Waimea field offshore Brazil in the Campos basin, Large Diameter Drilling Ltd. has completed its first offshore pile installation using its StabFrame.

SMD has contracted Trelleborg Offshore for syntactic foam buoyancy modules for 20 new work-class ROVs.

Subsea 7 SA has announced award of a $200-million SURF (subsea umbilical riser and flowline) contract from Petróleo Brasileiro.

Petrobras has awarded Subsea 7 SA a five-year contract to provide a dedicated deepwater flexible pipelay vessel for use offshore Brazil.

Trelleborg says it plans to debut the world’s first buoyancy module system on a drill pipe landing string in Rio de Janeiro.

Saipem do Brasil has contracted Lankhorst Mouldings Offshore Division to supply vortex induced vibration (VIV) suppression strakes for the risers at Petrobras’ P-55.

GE Oil & Gas has been awarded a contract from OGX Petróleo e Gás Ltda. to supply drilling and production equipment for three offshore fixed production platforms to be deployed in the Waimea and Waikiki oil and gas fields of the Campos basin, offshore Brazil.

The future of floating production systems is solid, says Infield in its “Floating Production Systems Market Report to 2015”.

A number of new, big subsea projects were announced recently.

EMAS AMC has completed installation of 38 km (23.6 mi) of umbilical for Shell in the Gulf of Mexico.

Petrobras has awarded GE Oil & Gas a four-year service agreement to deliver repairs, maintenance and retrofits on Petrobras' fleet of subsea equipment installed in the Campos basin offshore Brazil.

Shell Brasil Ltda has signed a $30-million three-year frame agreement with GE Oil & Gas for delivery of 26 subsea wellhead systems and associated services.

Offshore Technology Solutions Ltd. has ordered a Saab Seaeye Panther XT Plus electric ROV.

Petrobras has awarded FMC Technologies Inc. a $130-million contract to supply two subsea separation and boosting systems for use offshore Brazil in Congro and Corvina fields in the Campos basin.

Schilling Robotics LLC reports that C-Innovation has contracted for several ROV systems including both HD and UHD work class designs for deployment worldwide, but specifically Brazil and Singapore.

The rapid pace of development of drillship design now allows drilling in water depths beyond the traditional 10,000 ft/3,000 msw (meters of sea water) barrier. The certainty of finding commercial reservoirs in these extreme water depths has driven parallel development programs in all areas of subsea equipment associated with deepwater oil production.

As if to add emphasis to the Douglas-Westwood study of subsea capex spending (see accompanying report), a spate of contracts are in the news.

Siemens has agreed to acquire subsea engineering companies Poseidon Group and Bennex Group from Norway’s Subsea Technology Group.

Petrobras has ordered 32 subsea trees at a cost of $125 million from FMC.

The offshore industry, in particular the Gulf of Mexico, is still in a retrospective mode, assessing the impact from the subsea blowout in early 2010 and the ongoing global economic crisis. However, with signs of economic recovery and the potential for higher oil prices, the level of confidence for deployment of subsea processing equipment shows signs of revival.

With demands for maintenance and modifications increasing offshore Norway and globally, Aker Solutions’ service facility at Coast Center Base in Ågotnes, near Bergen, is well placed to capture new opportunities for equipment refurbishment.