OSX Brasil SA to Add 14 More FPSO Vessels to Its Fleet

OSX Brasil SA, the Brazilian oil services company controlled by billionaire Eike Batista​, expects to add 14 more floating production vessels to its fleet as Batista's company develops South American oilfields. OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA plans to operate by 2019 19 floating production and storage units that will be leased from OSX, Carlos Eduardo Bellot, a director at OSX said today in Singapore. OSX has orders to convert five of the 19 from crude ships, with the first one completed by Keppel Corp. of Singapore.

OSX received a license last month allowing it to build a shipyard in Rio de Janeiro state and will work on some of the conversions of the floating production units when it starts operations in the first quarter of 2013. The first unit built by Keppel will start producing oil in November at the Waimea field in Brazil.

“Keppel will work on converting OSX's second floating production vessel“ , Bellot said. “Contracts for the remaining three haven't been awarded yet“ , he said.

OSX plans to focus on building offshore products, including drill ships and floating production and storage vessels, at its Brazilian shipyard, Bellot said. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's largest shipyard, owns a 10 percent stake in OSX's shipyard

OSX sees total demand for rigs and platforms in Brazil at about $200 billion over the next 15 years. Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4), Brazil's state-controlled oil producer, is doubling its deep-water fleet to tackle projects in the Atlantic Ocean, including the 6.5-billion-barrel Lula field, the largest discovery in the Americas in more than three decades.