A joint venture of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and Saipem of Italy has been awarded a contract by Brazilian oil major Petrobras for the construction of a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, as part of the development of the Buzios offshore oil & gas field.

The FPSO P-79 project is worth approximately US$2.3 billion. Saipem’s portion is approximately US$1.3 billion.

The vessel will allow initial separation of gas from the oil extracted in the deep offshore reservoir, and will have a production capacity of 180,000 barrels per day of oil and 7.2 million cubic metres per day of gas, with a storage capacity of 2 million barrels of oil.

Saipem and DSME will execute the entire FPSO project, which encompasses the engineering, procurement, fabrication and integration of the topsides of the FPSO units and the installation of the mooring systems, as well as the hook-up, the commissioning and the start-up.

The Buzios field, the world’s largest deepwater oilfield, is located in the region of the pre-salt Santos Basin, approximately 200 kilometres off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, at water depths ranging from 1,600 metres to 2,100 metres. Saipem is already present in the Buzios field where it is executing a rigid subsea system installation contract.

Currently, there are four units in operation in Buzios, which account for more than 20% of Petrobras' total production. The fifth, sixth and seventh platforms for the field (FPSOs Almirante Barroso, Almirante Tamandare and P-78) are already under construction, while the ninth unit (P-80) is in the contracting process.