Brazil’s Petrobras has returned to the market to charter two floating production, storage and offloading vessels to be deployed at the deep-water section of the Sergipe-Alagoas basin.

The state-controlled company tried to contract the first of two FPSOs for the new frontier play last year but, the decision to opt for a “build-operate-transfer” format was not well received by a market used to lease-and-operate or owner-led engineering, procurement and construction models.

Only one bid was placed at that time, by Brazilian group Ocyan, and this was disqualified as the price offered surpassed the operator’s internal budget.