Petrobras and Mitsui invest in ultra-deepwater drillship

Japanese company Mitsui & Co. announced that Mitsui and Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) have agreed to start deepwater drilling services with ultra-deepwater drillship through P&M Drilling International, an operating vehicle established by Mitsui and Petrobras at 50/50 stake.
The company will own the drillship scheduled to be delivered in the second quarter of year ending March 2009. Total project cost is approximately $ 750 mm, and a part of the cost will be financed by syndicated lenders.

Petrobras is using the drillship for ultra-deepwater oil exploration. To operate and maintain drillship services, subsidiary of Transocean, a leading drilling service operator will be assigned.
Since the mid-1990s, Mitsui has provided variety of financial arrangement for capital investment of Petrobras as well as collaboration with Petrobras to develop oil production field by providing facilities such as floating production storage and offloading system. Under the circumstance of higher demand of deep-sea oil exploration worldwide, Mitsui, together with Petrobras, seek opportunities of new explored interest, leveraging this joint operation.