Petrobras, the operator of the Libra Consortium, confirms that it has begun a new bidding process for the Libra Pilot Project’s FPSO.

The company confirms the cancellation of the previous bid process, started on August 12, 2015, as it resulted in a proposal with a price higher than levels seen in the international markets and above the expectations of Petrobras and its partners. In this process, a domestic content commitment in line with the production sharing agreement was demanded.

This agreement provides for the possibility of requesting a waiver from compliance with domestic content levels in cases where a proposal is more expensive than levels practiced in the international markets. This mechanism permits the project’s competitive execution, safeguarding planned investments to develop Libra field efficiently in terms of timeframes, cost, quality and safety. Accordingly, on August 30, 2016, the Libra Consortium requested a domestic content waiver for the FPSO from the National Oil Agency (ANP). On September 16, 2016, it launched a new procurement process featuring lower domestic content requirements, which will enable part of the unit to be built in Brazil, but without impacting the project’s costs or timeframe.

The Libra Consortium plans to start up the production system in the second half of 2020, and to this end it expects to procure the FPSO by the first half of 2017.

The consortium is composed of Petrobras (operator and 40% owner), Shell (20%), Total (20%), CNPC (10%), CNOOC (10%) and PPSA (production sharing agreement manager).