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Petrobras rig pool tender appears to have awarded three of four rig slots

For the Petrobras ‘rig pool’ tender, which had bids due in mid-October, bid evaluation appears to have been completed. The tender was for “up to” four deepwater rigs with 3-year duration across three lots. It seems Petrobras has only progressed with three of the maximum four rigs it could award. Lots 1 and 2 appear to have gone to local contractors Constellation and Etesco, while only Seadrill was selected in Lot 3, making up the three rigs in total (meaning Valaris was not selected in Lot 3). While it is unclear why the last slot was not filled, we believe this could be viewed as a small setback for the deepwater market, in particular as Petrobras said in its 5-year plan that rig count was set to be 25–30 (versus 33 rigs contracted today). Being the largest consumer of deepwater rigs, Petrobras’ behaviour tends to get attention, and despite the lower volume on this tender, we see dayrates as supportive (USD350k–425k for 6G rigs and cUSD450k for 7G drillships).