KEPPEL Corp rig-building unit Keppel Fels' FloaTEC Singapore joint venture with J Ray McDermott has finally sealed a production platform contract with Petrobras and Chevron for about US$1 billion.

The project - comprising design, engineering, construction, maintenance and installation work, as well as a three-year contract to operate the well-head platform - will be jointly undertaken by KepFels and J Ray. KepFels' share of the work amounts to about 60 per cent or about US$600 million of the contract value.

KepFels and J Ray will enlist the expertise of their US-based joint venture company FloaTEC to perform engineering and basic design work, as well as manage the supply of risers, well systems and tendon components for the P-61 platform.

'We are pleased that FloaTEC's strong bid for the P-61 project matched Petrobras' expectations,' said Keppel Offshore & Marine USA president Chow Yew Yuen. The contract underscores the confidence of Petrobras in the joint venture's ability to deliver the best solution. he said.

FloaTEC beat major Japanese builder Modec to the job, bidding just US$14 million less, according to industry website Upstream. Modec initially submitted a lower bid of US$1.72 billion compared with FloaTEC's US$1.96 billion, but both bids were deemed too high and Petrobras called for fresh bids, with Floa-TEC then presenting a much more aggressive bid.

The P-61 is bound for Brazil's Papa-Terra field in the Campos Basin, where the first oil is expected to be brought up by mid-2013.

The platform will be built at Keppel's BrasFELS yard at Angra dos Reis, fulfilling local content requirements believed to amount to about 60 per cent of the total. Critical components such as tendons, temporary buoyancy modules and piles will be fabricated at J Ray's Morgan City facility in Louisiana. Completion is targeted for mid-2013, with J Ray handling the on-site installation.