Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd., and Marubeni Corporation have agreed to back a long-term charter company set up to provide a the floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) system for use in the Carioca area pre-salt oil field, offshore Brazil.
The move will see Mitsui, MOL and Marubeni invest in Carioca MV27 B.V., a Dutch company established by MODEC, Inc..
MV27 has signed a long-term chartering agreement for the deployment of the vessel by the BM-S-9 consortium, consisting Petrobras (45%), BG Group (30%) and Repsol Sinopec Brasil S.A. (25%).
The FPSO will be chartered for 20 years, under an agreement signed in December 2013.
The FPSO will be named FPSO Cidade de Caraguatatuba MV27 and will be deployed to the Carioca area of the BM-S-9 block off the coast of Brazil in the third quarter of 2016.
The area is part of a deepwater oil field located approximately 300km south of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The oil is contained in the pre-salt layer approximately 5000m beneath the seabed.
The project is the third occasion under which the companies have collaborated to operate FPSOs for pre-salt oil fields.
The Schahin Group, the joint bidder with MODEC for this project, as the local partner in Brazil, has the option to invest up to 15% in MV27 prior to the the start of the FPSO charter.