LOCAL rig maker Keppel Fels has hit the magic US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion) mark in its latest contract win to design, build and operate an oil rig in Brazil as part of a joint venture with an American company.

The joint venture company, FloaTEC Singapore, has won the mega contract from a Brazil-based joint venture between Petrobas and Chevron, parent company Keppel Corp announced.

It follows a record year in 2009 when Keppel Fels delivered 13 rigs.

The new project includes designing, constructing, maintaining and installing a rig known as a P-61 Tension Leg Wellhead Platform (TLWP). It also has a three-year contract to operate the rig.

'Almost the entire scope of the project will be implemented using the combined resources of FloaTEC, Keppel Fels and J. Ray,' said FloaTEC president Eric Namtvedt.

FloaTEC Singapore is an equal joint venture between Keppel's rig-building unit Keppel Fels and J. Ray McDermott, whose parent McDermott International is a well-known US designer of drilling and production platforms.

FloaTEC had earlier signed a letter of intent to build the P-61 TLWP after the Brazilian oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) announced its US$174.4 billion business plan in February last year for new rig orders and jobs.

The P-61 TLWP, an oil platform, will work alongside the P-63 Floating Production Storage Offloading vessel, handling up to 180,000 barrels of oil per day in Brazil's Papa-Terra oilfield.

Petrobras owns 62.5 per cent of the offshore field and United States-based oil company Chevron owns the rest.

'The P-61 project will bring together all our global engineering, project management, fabrication and construction resources to provide the best solution for the Papa-Terra field,' said president and chief executive of J. Ray McDermott Steve Johnson.

The P-61 will be built at Keppel's BrasFELS Yard in Angra dos Reis, Brazil. Some critical components such as temporary buoyancy modules will be made at J. Ray's US facility in Louisiana. The project is targeted for completion by the middle of 2013.

Keppel sees more opportunities in Brazil's offshore sector.

The sector 'is embarking on a very exciting phase with many of Petrobras' new projects put on fast track. There is an intensifying need for innovative solutions... which Keppel... is well placed to offer', said Keppel Offshore & Marine USA president Chow Yew Yuen.

Keppel Corp shares closed 17 cents higher at $8.54 yesterday.