Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras is advancing the development of its Sepia-2 pre-salt project in the Santos basin by moving to contract a major subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF) system. Four companies submitted commercial proposals in the tender.

Tender Competition and Bids

Norway's Subsea7 submitted the lowest bid at approximately $1.3 billion. Italy's Saipem, which is in a merger process with Subsea7, followed with a $1.5 billion proposal. A consortium of Mota-Engil and McDermott International bid $1.55 billion, and Switzerland's Allseas submitted a $1.6 billion offer. TechnipFMC, a typical strong contender in such tenders, declined to participate. This tender follows a recent contract award to Allseas for the SURF solution on the separate Atapu-2 pre-salt development.

Project Infrastructure and Scope

The Sepia-2 SURF contract scope is extensive, covering 19 development wells (10 producers and 9 injectors). It includes 144 kilometres of rigid risers, 21 rigid jumpers, and 20 flexible joints. The subsea configuration will utilize a rigid riser-based system, featuring corrosion-resistant alloy and steel lazy wave risers and flowlines. Petrobras has already contracted the P-85 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel from Seatrium for Sepia-2; this unit is slated to begin operations in 2030 with a capacity of 225,000 barrels of oil and 10 million cubic metres of gas per day.

Strategic Context for Subsea7

Awarding the Sepia-2 contract to Subsea7 would mark its sixth major project with Petrobras since the oil company transitioned from flexible to rigid risers for its pre-salt assets. Subsea7's previous contracts with Petrobras include providing the subsea solution for the Mero-3, Mero-4, Buzios-8, Buzios-9, and Buzios-11 pre-salt developments.