Petrobras has signed an agreement with Japanese export credit agency Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) and Mizuho Bank to issue a loan guarantee for the sum of US$500 million assigned for projects to build and convert 12 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) platform hulls.

On Friday, August 1, at the Planalto Palace in Brasília, the previously signed documents were formally exchanged in the presence of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Petrobras CEO Maria das Graças Silva Foster, NEXI CEO Kazuhiko Bando, and Mizuho Bank Executive Manager Hiroshi Suchiro.

The platforms are being built to develop pre-salt projects in the Santos Basin. Eight of them (P-66, P-67, P-68, P-69, P-70, P-71, P-72, P-73) are assigned to blocks BM-S-9 and BM-S-11, while the remaining four (P-74, P-75, P-76 and P-77) will be used in the onerous concession areas (Cessão Onerosa).

Pre-salt now represents slightly more than 20% of Petrobras’ oil production in Brazil. According to the company’s Business and Management Plan, pre-salt will account for around 50% of its production in 2020. By this date, Petrobras plans to have doubled its output to 4.2 million barrels of oil per day.