McDermott International said on Tuesday it has been awarded contract from Petrobras for engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of subsea risers and flowlines for the first phase of the Sepia field, located 280 kilometers from the Rio de Janeiro coastline in Brazil.

The contract is worth between $250 million and $500 million, McDermott said. The project scope includes detailed engineering, surveys, supply, installation and pre-commissioning of rigid pipelines, jumpers, buoyance modules, strakes and riser monitoring systems for seven-riser wells (three producers and four injector wells) connected to the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) Carioca vessel.

McDermott’s Rio de Janeiro office will perform the work with support from its Houston office. McDermott plans to use five vessels for the installation work at ultra-deepwater depths up to 2,140 meters.

The engineering work is expected to begin immediately, and the contract will be reflected in McDermott's second quarter 2019 backlog.

The first phase is part of a 15 well Sepia field development located in the pre-salt layer of the Santos Basin in Block BM-S-24. First oil is expected in 2021. Petrobras operates the Sepia field and has 100% interest.

In October 2017 Modec was awarded an EPCI contract and 21 year lease to supply the FPSO for use on the Sepia field. The FPSO is a converted very large crude carrier (VLCC) and will be capable of processing 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day, 212 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, 240,000 barrels of water injection per day and has storage capacity of 1,400,000 barrels of crude oil.

According to World Energy Reports, conversion work is being performed by Cosco Dalian, and the topsides modules will be fabricated by several facilities in China and Brazil. Sofec will supply the spread mooring system.