Memory
A pioneering story continues
The story of Odebrecht Perfurações Ltda. began 30 years ago and is still going on through the operations of Odebrecht Oil & Gas, which is building three offshore platforms named Norbe
written by: Cláudio Lovato Filho
photos by: Edú Simões
“It’s in our blood. It’s natural for us.”
On another floor of the building where Ode-brecht’s offices are located in Rio de Janeiro, on Praia de Botafogo, Herculano Barbosa talks about platform Norbe VI, which is being built in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The semi-submersible Norbe VI platform will drill in ultra-deep waters (surface to 2,000 m) for Petrobras. “This will be another first for us,” says Herculano. He worked at OPL from 1983 to 1998 during the first phase of his career at Odebrecht, and returned in 2006 as a Project Director at the invitation of Miguel Gradin, the Leader of Odebrecht Oil & Gas (OOG).
OOG is continuing OPL’s pioneering track record, with new trails to blaze and borders to cross. The drilling rig will plumb unprecedented depths, which could reach 12,000 meters (3,000 m of water depth and a 9,000-m well). “Petrobras is a company that takes risks and recognizes its partners’ loyalty when they share those risks,” says Miguel. “Petrobras and Odebrecht have a relationship that dates back over 55 years, and we want to stay close to our client, helping them overcome the challenges they now face, including the exploration of the pre-salt layer.” This is yet another chapter in OPL’s 30-year history.
A call from Petrobras in 1979
Purchased in Singapore in 1979 for USD 29 million, a jack-up (self-elevating) platform named Norbe I marked the beginning of OPL’s operations by drilling off the coast of the northeastern Brazilian state of Sergipe. The company invested half its assets to purchase that rig. Petrobras wanted to bolster the domestic oil industry and had called on its partners to join in the effort.
Initially, OPL drilled at water depths of up to 90 m, which prepared it to operate semi-submersible platforms later on. Then, in 1982, Odebrecht and the French company Foramer formed a joint venture called Forabrecht S.A., which brought to Brazil a semi-submersible platform called Asterie to operate at deeper water depths, where it was not possible to use jack-up platforms, and the support structure was based on the sea floor. Several teams, a total of 500 people, gained their expertise as a result of that partnership. It was those Brazilian professionals who would operate Norbes II, III, IV and V, later acquired by the Group. Forabrecht drilled wells in Congo, and platforms Norbe II and V operated in India. By the late 1980s, OPL had the largest private fleet in the country to drill and explore for oil offshore – a total of eight rigs – and was the first Brazilian company in the industry to internationalize its operations.
OPL also drilled onshore. Between 1981 and 1984, it operated two rigs in the states of São Paulo and Paraná. But it made history in the offshore oil fields. Over the course of the 80s, Norbes I, II, III and V provided services to Petrobras in the North and Northeast of Brazil, as the state-owned oil giant implemented its strategy of shifting drilling services to the Continental Shelf. Brazil was accelerating its pursuit of oil in deeper waters.
OPL’s teams built up an extraordinary trove of knowledge and experience by working on platforms owned by other companies, such as the Alaskan Star, Falcon Star, Treasure Legend and Treasure Stawinner rigs in Brazil and Africa. They also learned valuable lessons from joint ventures with foreign companies, including Western Oceanic, from the US, and Wilrig, from Norway, and services provided to clients like ELF, Opic, ONGC and British Petroleum. This intangible heritage, along with tangible assets represented by the offshore platforms, made the company a bolstering factor for the Group in different ways.
“Through OPL, Odebrecht became the owner of the platforms, and not just a service provider. When Odebrecht decided to sell the Norbes in the early 1990s, OPL made a contribution in a different way: it generated cash for the organization,” recalls Luiz Villar, who was responsible for the sale of the rigs. As a result, OPL went back to its role as a service provider.
“OPL brought nothing but quality for the Group,” says Villar, stressing the important leadership of Sylvio Tude (who died in 2003) and the support of Victor Gradin, a Member of the Board of Odebrecht S.A., in structuring OPL’s operations during its early years. “Now we are experiencing a new cycle,” adds Villar. The protagonist of that new cycle is OOG. Created in 2006 to resume Odebrecht’s investments in offshore oil drilling, OOG is now managing the construction of Norbe VI in Abu Dhabi, and Norbes VIII and IX in South Korea. Its team-building strategy involves combining former OPL members who had left the Group (like Herculano Barbosa, as well as José Pitta, who is now in Abu Dhabi) with professionals found in the job market and young talent from the universities. “We needed to be prepared to take on the challenges our client is facing. We wanted to be the leading Brazilian company in the field of offshore platform operations, and establish a presence in Brazil and worldwide,” observes Miguel Gradin.
The construction of the semi-submersible rig named Norbe VI is a USD 550-million project that marks the resumption of Odebrecht’s oil drilling operations. Eighty-percent of the project was financed through a project financing scheme in which all parties (the client, manager and builder) share the risks. ABN Amro Bank is the lead bank for this financial operation, which involves 11 other institutions.
Between June 2006 and June 2007, 10 OOG members worked in Houston in the United States to develop and approve the engineering design. The choice of Abu Dhabi was due to the availability of a top-quality shipyard there in mid-2007. OOG hired the SBM/Gusto company, which identified and hired the shipyard owned by the Gulf Piping Company to build the rig.
The platform left dry dock in January and is now in the Persian Gulf for the next stage of construction. The rig will begin operating in Brazilian waters by early 2010. It will be able to accommodate 140 people: 35 from Petrobras and 105 from Odebrecht. The main highlight of the construction and technologies used in Norbe VI is parallel activity, an engineering solution that permits the simultaneous operation of a drill tower and a tower that prepares sections of pipe, which reduces the need to remove and replace the drilling columns.
Another thing that sets Norbe VI apart is its dynamic positioning system. Using satellite data and a system of eight screw propellers, it keeps the platform in the ideal drilling position in the most hostile sea conditions. “This means total accuracy when positioning the rig in ultra-deep waters,” says an exultant Herculano Barbosa, who has worked with all the Norbe rigs.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, at the DSME (Daewoo) shipyard, another OOG team has been managing the construction of Norbes VIII and IX since the second half of 2008. Petrobras is the client for these rigs as well. Worth a total of BRl 1.6 billion, these two floating production vessels are each 240-m long, and will be capable of drilling at water depths of up to 3,000 m.
Macaé Base: integrated services, exploration and production
If the Norbe VI rig marks Odebrecht’s return to the drilling business and Norbe VIII and IX are consolidating the company’s presence in that sector with the construction of two huge ships in the Far East, there is just one question: What about Norbe VII? That platform will represent the next challenge for OOG’s growth. Norbe VII will give special attention to the training of new members. This 30-year-old story is just getting started.