Petrobras International News

Brazilian prosecutors plan to file criminal charges stemming from the lease of an Ensco Plc offshore oil-drilling ship to Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras "in due course," they said. The plan to prosecute over the Ensco-Petrobras charter was mentioned in a Thursday statement presenting corruption charges stemming from the 2009 lease of another drillship, Vantage Drilling's Titanium Explorer Rig. In the Vantage case, prosecutors formally charged six people, including Petrobras' former international-unit chief Jorge Zelada. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, chartered the DS-5 in 2008, when it was owned by Pride International, a company London-based Ensco purchased in 2011.

Subsea Specialist Flexlife Signs Memorandum of Understanding With Petrobras International. Flexlife, an oil & gas industry specialist in subsea project and integrity management, announced today (October 13) it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Petrobras to develop and provide a new integrity management system and specialised engineering services for its international oil and gas projects offshore. The agreement – Flexlife’s first work in South America - was reached during the recent OTC Brasil exhibition in Rio de Janeiro.

International oilfield service company Expro announced its Latin America Connectors & Measurements team has been awarded a new master service agreement (MSA) from Petrobrás for subsea electrical systems. As part of the contract, over three years, Expro will provide on-site field support for Petrobrás using its Tronic connectors for medium and high-powered subsea systems. “This new master service agreement with Petrobrás is a great milestone for Expro Latin America that strengthens the 15-year relationship the two companies have had in Brazil,” said Marcelo Machado, Expro do Brasil Connectors & Measurements area manager. The MSA will run until June 2013 and will cover Brazil. Expro’s subsea connection systems provide the ultimate in reliability for communications in deepwater developments.

Eni and Sonangol announce a new major oil discovery in Block 15/06, located offshore Angola. The Cabaça South East-1 well, located at a depth of 470 meters, at a distance of 100 km from the coast, successfully reached its multi-target objective in the deepest levels of Miocene age, where oil bearing reservoirs, with a total of 450 meters of gross thickness, have been proven. Initial evaluations indicate that the discovery holds  material volumes of oil in place of high quality. Cabaça South East-1 is the seventh of eight expected exploration wells within the contractual commitments of the license. The well has produced results beyond initial expectations and confirms the potential for a second productive hub in the North East area of the block.

Pride International is continuing the expansion of its deepwater fleet, following a multi-year contract award from a subsidiary of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) for the construction and operation of an advanced-capability, ultra-deepwater drillship in support of Petrobras's international exploration and development drilling projects. The ultra-deepwater drillship, to be built at the Samsung Heavy Industries, Co. Ltd. (SHI) shipyard in Geoje, South Korea on a fixed-price basis…