Petrobras swaps Prosafe’s flotels. ‘Safe Notos’ starts early

Brazil’s oil giant Petrobras has substituted a contract for one of Prosafe’s flotels with another one and agreed with the owner for the contract to start earlier than planned. 

Prosafe’s semi-submersible accommodation vessel Safe Eurus will now be substituted by its sister vessel Safe Notos, which will start the contract with Petrobras at an earlier date within 4Q 2016.

Petrobras originally awarded the contract to Safe Eurus in August 2015 and the beginning of operations had previously been agreed to be within 1Q 2017.

In addition, the original contract will now be extended from the original duration of 3 years by an additional 222 days.

The total value of the extended contract for flotel Safe Notos is now approximately $189 million, compared to the original approximate value of $164 million.

The Safe Notos was delivered in February 2016 by the China-based Cosco shipyard. It is a dynamically positioned (DP3), harsh environment semi-submersible safety and maintenance support vessel, also known as flotel, able to accommodate up to 500 persons with extensive recreation facilities, and capable of supporting construction projects using a large deck area and capable cranes.

The Safe Notos has been undergoing final preparatory works offshore Singapore to ensure full compliance with Petrobras requirements and in July will start the transit to Brazil where the final approval processes will be conducted for start of operations within 4Q 2016.

Dayrate cut

As part of the same agreement, Prosafe has agreed a dayrate reduction of approximately 14 per cent for the Safe Concordia from 2Q 2016 and provide Petrobras the option to early terminate the Safe Concordia contract on beginning of Safe Notos operations.

Safe Concordia’s three-year contract with Petrobras started in 2011, and the oil company extended the deal for another three years in 2013. The start date for the extension was in June 2014.