Saipem, in JV with Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. Ltd (DSME), a main South Korean specialized shipbuilding and offshore contractor, has been awarded by Petrobras a contract, worth USD 2.3 bn, for the construction of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessel (FPSO), named P-79, for the development of the Búzios offshore field in Brazil. Saipem’s portion of the contract is USD 1.3 bn. In July 2020, Saipem had already been awarded another large contract, worth USD 325 million, also relating to the Búzios field.
The Búzios field, the world’s largest deep-water oil field, is located in the region of the pre-salt Santos Basin (i.e. lower than the salt formations on the sea floor), approximately 200km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The P-79 FPSO will be the eighth platform in the field under consideration, and is expected to be completed by 2025, according to Petrobras, with an output capacity of 180,000 oil barrels and 7.2 million cubic metres of gas per day.
