Petrobras postpones oil rig tenders indefinitely

Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR), or Petrobras, has postponed once again tenders for the construction of two oil platforms, the oil giant said. The company didn't set a new date to proceed with the tenders.
The processes opened last year in August, and the deadlines for initial proposals were set for Dec. 16, then postponed to an unspecified date in February.

Petrobras is tendering for construction of the P-51 and P-52 drilling platforms, which are seen consuming $ 1 bn in investments. Late last year, Petrobras said bidders who had been invited for the tenders requested that the deadline for handing in their proposals be postponed.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who took office in January, severely criticized the federally-owned oil giant during his presidential campaign last year for ordering construction of oil rigs abroad instead of building them at home. At the time, Lula pledged that the rigs would be built locally. He and other members of his left-leaning team have since then toned down their rhetoric, but say they would still like to see more national participation in Petrobras' projects.

One of the rigs, called P-50, was awarded in July to Singapore-based Jurong Shipyard, whose bid was $ 14 mm lower than that of the Brazilian-Singaporean consortium FelsSetal. If finished on schedule, the $ 496 mm platform will go online in 2004, processing up to 180,000 bpd of oil in Brazil's rich offshore Albacora field.
The platforms are key for Brazil's goal of becoming self-sufficient in oil production by 2005, when domestic consumption could be as high as 2 mm bpd. Petrobras has won worldwide recognition for its deep-sea drilling technology.