Petrobras says that the Company’s Executive Board has approved the strategy to hire up to 28 new drilling rigs to be built in Brazil, with increasing national content, and to be used for ultra-deep water exploration, including the fields located in the pre-salt layer. The rigs are slated to be delivered between 2013 and 2018.

A first phase foresees the hiring of a minimum lot of 9 rigs. Of this first lot, seven vessel-type units will be built, based on consolidated technologies widely used in the global market, and constructed in a single shipyard. Contracting these seven rigs from a same shipyard will allow the winning bidder to make the investments that are required in order for it to construct the needed infrastructure and to achieve the necessary economies of scale.

The two other units, which may be either vessel-type rigs or semi-submersible platforms, will be built separately and may use technologies that incorporate concepts new to the market, but which will afford Petrobras greater economic and operating benefits.

In addition to building these nine units, the Company will simultaneously conduct a process among all rig operators in which Petrobras would charter up to four units per operator. The rigs to be chartered would be built in Brazil. Under this strategy, the charterers themselves would be responsible for constructing rigs in Brazilian shipyards.

The process involved the bids to chartering and constructing all of the units is expected to be released as early as September 2009.

The volume of orders will not only make feasible the expansion and upgrading of existing shipyards, as well as the creation of new, modern shipyards in Brazil. It is expected that the investment in new and existing yards will lead to the implementation of a new Brazilian naval industry that can compete with the best international shipyards in the offshore industry segment.

Tags: Petrobras