Chevron orders oil rig with SBM for Brazil project

US oil major Chevron has ordered a 100,000 barrel per day vessel-based oil rig with Dutch maritime engineering group SBM Offshore NV for its Frade project in Brazil.

Chevron officials declined to give the value of the deal, under which SBM will build a floating production, storage and offloading rig (FPSO), but they told a news conference Chevron and its partners in Frade would invest $1.2 billion in the FPSO and subsea equipment and other infrastructure.

The FPSO will be based on the conversion of the VLCC ?Lu San? from SBM inventory. The FPSO, moored by an internal turret accommodating 33 risers, will be fitted with topsides for the production of 100,000 barrels of oil, treatment and compression of 106 million standard cubic feet of gas and treatment and injection of 150,000 barrels of water per day.

Installation in 1,080 meters of water depth at the Frade field offshore Brazil is scheduled for the second quarter of 2008 and it should reach its peak production of 90,000 bpd of oil in 2011.