Oil Production Ships News

Brazilian prosecutors on Thursday charged 12 people with a bribery scheme involving Dutch firm SBM Offshore NV, the world's top leaser of oil production ships, and state oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA . Police said they had four arrest orders as part of the scheme, dubbed "Operation Black Blood," though two of them involved suspects already in jail in the southern city of Curitiba, the epicenter of a broader investigation into price fixing and bribery on Petrobras contracts with engineering firms. Former Petrobras executives Pedro Barusco, Jorge Zelada and Renato Duque were charged with corruption along with former SBM sales agents Julio Faerman and Luis Eduardo Campos Barbosa da Silva, according to a statement from federal prosecutors.

A Netherlands-based subsidiary of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's bankrupt shipbuilding and shipleasing unit OSX Brasil SA suspended payments to creditors after being granted protection by a Dutch court. According to a securities filing on Thursday, OSX sought protection for its OSX WHP 1&2 Leasing BV unit after an unnamed "alleged creditor" asked a court to order payment in a way that threatened OSX's obligations to other creditors. OSX WHP was created to finance the building of two fixed, offshore oil-production platforms for bankrupt sister oil company Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA.

Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA , or Petrobras, will not seek bids from SBM Offshore NV while the Netherlands-based oil production ship leaser is under investigation for alleged bribery in Brazil, said Maria das Graças Foster, Petrobras' chief executive, during hearings before a Brazilian congressional committee on Tuesday. SBM is the largest leaser of oil production ships known as FPSOs. Petrobras owns or leases the world's largest fleet of oil-production ships.

Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA, the bankrupt oil company controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, received a $44 million offer for five oil exploration and production blocks in Colombia, the company said on Friday. The offer involves $30 million in cash and the assumption of $14 million in future exploration obligations in Colombia, Oleo e Gas said in a statement. It did not give the name of the investor or company making the offer. Oleo e Gas was formerly known as OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA. If approved by a bankruptcy judge, creditors and Oleo e Gas shareholders, the sale will help the Rio de Janeiro-based company pay for leases on offshore oil production ships and its share of investments in output in Brazil, the company said.

Floating Production Storage & Offloading ship uses ABB systems to control entire production from reservoir to wellhead to vessel. FPSO Peregrino, one of the biggest, most technologically advanced oil production ships in the world, was converted at a cost of more than US$1-billion from a VLCC tankship to function as a FPSO having been acquired by Statoil and permanently moored off the coast of Brazil. This FPSO vessel has a daily production capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil, 350,000 barrels of liquid and 7.3 million standard cubic feet of gas.

Shipping companies Aker Maritime and Bergesen will sell two oil production ships, the Berge Hugin and Navion Nunin, which they co-own with Norwegian energy giant Statoil. "We have agreed with the other owners to sell those production ships," said a spokesman for Aker Maritime. Aker Maritime is a 50/50 co-owner with Statoil of the topside processing equipment of both ships. No sale price was given. Statoil declined to comment. Navion Nunin is co-owned by Statoil and its tanker subsidiary Navion, in which it holds an 80 percent stake. It is on charter to Statoil until 2004, and is stationed at the Lufeng field in China. Berge Hugin is co-owned by Statoil and Norwegian tanker group Bergesen.