According to Reuters, the rigging failed while the pipe was being moved into position on to the P-55 semi-submersible platform in the Roncador field.

The pipe ended up plunging about 1800m to the seabed and is written off.

This setback in mid-March added to previous delays at the field while the P-58 and P-61 platforms in nearby fields were also reportedly behind schedule.

"By setting back efforts to expand Roncador, Brazil's No. 2 oilfield, by at least a month, Petrobras will lose tens of millions of dollars in oil output, salaries and equipment leases when it can least afford it," the newswire reported.

Brazil's National Petroleum and Gas Institute professor Cleveland Jones said the series of management and engineering problems facing Petrobras was "flabbergasting".

"This may have been an unfortunate accident, but it comes as the company's organizational problems are becoming more evident," he told Reuters.