Dresser-Rand may get Petrobras FPSO contract

Dresser-Rand may be selected as the supplier for all the compression needs of the eight "replicant" floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSOs) vessels that will be used in the Pre-Salt project.  The actual award remains subject to the approval of Petrobras' Board of Directors and its Partners.

These eight "replicant" FPSOs, to be located in the Tupi and Guara pre-salt fields in the Santos basin off the coast of Brazil, will take place this year.

Dresser-Rand's new unit bookings for 2011 may exceed $1.4 to $1.6 billion this year. 

The expression "pre-salt" makes reference to an aggregation of rocks located offshore in a large portion of the Brazilian coast and with potential to generate and accumulate oil. It was called pre-salt because it forms a rock interval that ranges under an extensive layer of salt which, in certain areas of the coast, can be as much as 2,000 meters thick. The "pre" expression is used because, through time, these rocks were deposited before the salt layer. The total depth of these rocks, i.e., the distance between the surface of the sea and the oil reservoirs under the salt layer, can be as much as 7,000 meters.

Petrobras recently made the biggest oil discoveries in Brazil in the pre-salt layer located between the states of Santa Catarina and Espírito Santo, where major volumes of light oil were found.