Petrobras Delays Dry Dock Bidding Deadline to January 17

BNAmericas

Brazil's federal energy company Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) has delayed the bidding deadline for a US$80mn-100mn dry dock to January 17, newspaper Valor Econômico reported.

A large-scale dry dock would allow for the construction and repair of offshore platforms in Brazil. At present many such platforms are bid out to foreign shipyards.

"The aim is to build the dock as soon as possible to make construction of the P-55 possible," Petrobras services director Renato Duque was reported as saying. The P-55 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel is planned for the Roncador field in the Campos basin.

Petrobras has hired financial services company Rio Bravo to design the tender and eventually award the contract.

Bidders will be able to propose the location of the dry dock, although Petrobras has suggested a piece of land at São Roque do Paraguaçu in Bahia state, where it has a workshop and has in the past built smaller scale platforms.

Once the company has been selected, Rio Bravo will launch a property investment fund (FII) that will issue receivables certificates (CRI) to be placed on the market by an investment bank. The bank will be selected by a tender.

The FII will own an equity stake in the dock and the exact percentage will depend on a fixed fee Petrobras will pay to use it for 10 years. How much the winning company will charge Petrobras to rent the dock is one of the criteria by which the construction contract will be awarded. Other factors include the level of tax incentives the government of the host state offers.

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