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UpstreamOnline: Shell eyes floater for ‘Shell-Park’

8 September 2006

SHELL is on course to award a charter contract at the end of this month for a floating production storage and offloading to operate on a cluster of heavy oilfields in Brazil’s Campos basin, writes Gareth Chetwynd.

The FPSO is expected to produce more than 80,000 barrels of crude per day on the area of the Campos basin formerly covered by Block BC-10.

The four fields, known individually as Abalone, Ostra, Nautilus and Argonauta, are being referred to in Brazil with the Portuguese name Parque das Conchas (Shell Park). Crude ranges from 18 to 24 degrees API, with first oil scheduled for early 2010.

SBM Offshore emerged as the favourite to pick up the contract back in March, when the Monaco company outbid second-placed Prosafe, with Modec International and Maersk trailing further behind.

Shell did not move swiftly to an award, but instead restudied some aspects of the project, including the subsea layout, according to industry sources.

“This has never been a done deal, and Shell has been looking at alternatives, but SBM still seems to be in line for the work,” said a manangement source with one of the competing companies.

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