Four Bids in Petrobras Offshore Fiber Optics Tender
By BNAmericas
January 5, 2023
Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras received four bids for engineering, supply and installation of submarine fiber optics, aimed at connecting 12 production units in the Campos basin.
The bids were submitted by Prática Engenharia, Best Energy & Engineering, K2 Telecom e Multimídia and Zemax Serviços Marítimos. A total of 15 companies were qualified to take part in the process, but 11 declined to bid. These include Claro Brasil, Prysmian and Tampnet, among others.
Petrobras is now analyzing the offers.
Zemax made the lowest bid, at 1.26mn reais (US$233,000), according to Petrobras documents, while Best and Prática offered 776mn reais and 2.64bn reais, respectively, and K2 offered to do the work for 1.16bn reais.
The huge differences between the lowest and the highest bids were not explained by Petrobras. A company spokesperson told BNamericas that Petrobras would not comment on the topic.
João Martins Silva, commercial director at Prática, told BNamericas that his company made a “typing mistake” and that the correct value of its proposal should actually be 1.64bn reais, not 2.64bn reais.
According to the executive, there is probably an error in the Zemax bid as well, which should be 1.26bn reais, not 1.26mn reais. BNamericas was unable to reach Zemax for comment.
Martins Silva argues that valid bids for this tender would likely be in the range of 1.2bn-1.3bn reais. Proposals such as that by Best Energy & Engineering, for 776mn reais, would be “unfeasible” given the scope and complexity of the project, he added.
“The lowest value is not necessarily the winning offer. In any case, Zemax has an advantage in pricing because it already has the vessels, the structure, a team ready for this type of operation, in Santos,” Martins told BNamericas. “They already have most of the costs internalized.”
