Sete Brasil's $25B drillship venture for Petrobras ended in bankruptcy

Sete Brasil was created in 2010 — with Petrobras, banks and investment firms as shareholders — to build 28 oil drillships that would serve Petrobras under contracts it had won through the state company's bidding. The vessels carried an estimated investment of about US$25 billion, but only four ever had construction underway.

The venture collapsed into the Lava Jato investigations, which revealed a corruption and overbilling scheme in the rig programme. Sete Brasil entered judicial recovery in 2016, and the recovery itself became a slow-motion failure: over eight years the company held 44 creditor assemblies and produced 18 versions of the recovery plan, of which five were voted on. Less than 0.05% of credits were ever paid, with 99.9614% of credits in default; 33 creditors of classes I-III were paid roughly R$1 million in total, while liabilities grew from R$21.7 billion to R$36 billion.

On 17 December 2024, Judge Luiz Alberto Carvalho Alves of Rio de Janeiro's 3rd Business Court declared Sete Brasil bankrupt, noting the company 'no longer presents conditions for its resurgence' and that monthly administrative expenses had climbed from R$2.56 million in May to R$4.68 million by September. The bankruptcy petition came from the judicial administrator itself, Licks Associados, which said the company had no employees, no business activity and no viable plan.

Every rig had exactly one customer: when that customer's own corruption scandal froze the programme, the company had nothing left to sell.

The corruption and overbilling revealed by Lava Jato poisoned the economics of ships that were to be built in Brazil at inflated cost.

Eight years of judicial recovery produced 18 plan versions and near-zero creditor repayment — process substituted for a workable business.

Administrative costs kept compounding while the company generated no revenue, making the estate smaller every month it survived.

A venture built around a single state customer lives and dies with that customer's politics: concentration is leverage until the scandal arrives.

Sete Brasil said it received the bankruptcy decision with surprise, before the deadline set by creditors in assembly, and is appealing — insisting judicial recovery remains possible under measures already aligned with creditors.