Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Modec Inc., the world's second- biggest builder of floating oil platform and storage facilities, won an order from Petroleo Brasileiro SA for a vessel for the Tupi field, the biggest discovery in the Americas since 1976.

Modec will build the floating production and storage vessel by retrofitting a used crude tanker and leasing it to Petrobras, the Japanese company said in a statement today. The platform is scheduled to begin operations at the end of 2010.

The vessel is the first among more than an estimated 10 required to extract oil from the Tupi field, located 300 kilometers off the shores of Brazil's Rio de Janeiro. Petrobras, seeking to boost oil production by 79 percent in the next seven years, plans to order $30 billion of drilling ships and platforms for delivery by 2017.

``We aim to win more orders from Petrobras,'' Naomasa Kosaka, executive director of Modec, said by phone today. He declined to say how much the contract is worth.

Modec is 50.1 percent owned by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. and the rest is held by companies including Mitsui & Co., which has a 6.59 percent stake.

The Tupi field may contain as much as 8 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, Modec said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Megumi Yamanaka in Tokyo at myamanaka@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 26, 2008 04:46 EDT