Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, July 31 -- Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) awarded Fugro Brasil Ltda. and Sealion Shipping Ltd. a $137 million, 3-year contract for inspection, repair, and maintenance work in the Santos and Campos basins, just north of Rio de Janeiro.

The project is expected to start in September. Fugro said it will operate the Toisa Sentinel diving support vessel with an 18-man, 350-m saturation dive system and two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), one for water as deep as 3,000 m and one for water as deep as 1,500 m.

The ROVs are used to monitor divers and to carry out inspection, repair and maintenance works in waters of up to 3,000 meters in depth.

Fugro said it has operated with Sealion Shipping aboard the "Toisa Sentinel" for many years and has performed many dives in water depths up to 350 meters without incident.

In May, Fugro NV acquired the remaining 38% it did not already own in the Fugro-Oceansatpeg joint venture in Brazil. Established in 2005, the JV was set up to provide marine survey services, chiefly for the Brazil's oil and gas industry.

In the first quarter of 2008, the Fugro-Oceansatpeg JV received new orders worth $30 million for ROV services for several clients, including Petrobras, as well as for offshore surveys and diving activities related to production facilities in various locations including the Campos field.

In May Fugro said it reached an agreement for the acquisition of In Situ Geotecnia Ltda, a Brazilian company in the field of geotechnical services, which operates throughout the country.

In December 2006, Petrobras Geodesia awarded the Fugro-Oceansatpeg JV a 3-year plus 3-year option contract a ROV to perform survey acquisition works using a wide range of acoustic measurement equipment. The project also required a full array of seabed transponders in water depths up to 3,000 m.