Petrobras Overturns Libra Injunction
Monday 20 March 2017
Brazil’s Petrobras has overturned an injunction that prevented the oil giant from conducting a much-awaited tender for a large floating production, storage and offloading vessel for the Libra pre-salt area.
A Petrobras spokesperson confirmed to Upstream that Brazilian federal judge Neviton Guedes ruled last Friday that Petrobras can now move forward with the tender for the Libra pilot FPSO, with commercial bids now expected to take place in the first week of April.
In January, Brazilian shipbuilding association Sinaval successfully blocked in court the Libra FPSO bidding proceedings on the eve of the tender.
Sinaval claimed that Petrobras had not genuinely consulted local suppliers before seeking a waiver of contractually enshrined local content requirements.
The association also filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month against Petrobras aimed at preventing the company from tendering for an FPSO for the Sepia pre-salt field, but federal judge Ivani da Silva Luz rejected the request.
Petrobras is due to receive commercial offers for the Sepia FPSO on Monday.