Transpetro inks nine ship order

Source: Marine

Brazil's Transpetro (Petrobras Transporte) yesterday signed agreements with the Rio Naval Consortium for the construction of nine vessels in the company's Fleet Modernization and Expansion Program, which is part of the so-called PAC, the Federal Government's Growth Acceleration Program.

The signing ceremony took place at the Sermetal Shipyard, and was attended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Rio de Janeiro governor, Sergio Cabral; Petrobras president, Jose Sergio Gabrielli; and Transpetro president, Sergio Machado.

The Rio Naval Consortium will build five Aframax and four Panamax vessels. The vesselswill be delivered to Transpetro between 2009 and 2012.

Half of the vessels in the expansion program will be built in Rio de Janeiro, generating more than 11,000 new direct jobs in the state. The other Rio de Janeiro shipyard that will manufacture vessels for the company is Maua Jurong, which won a four product-vessel lot bid.

On January 31, Transpetro signed an agreement with the Atlantico Sul Consortium, in Pernambuco, for the construction of ten Suezmax vessels.

Development base

The project will create 22,000 new direct jobs. Several labor retraining and qualification programs are being created to supply this demand. Rio de Janeiro alone already offers upwards of 10,000 openings in courses that will qualify workers in different naval construction sector areas, such as welders, mechanics, machine operators, industrial electricians, electromechanical technicians, among others.

The program also offers a structured naval industry technological support base, anchored on an agreement signed between Petrobras, the Science and Technology Ministry, via Finep (Study & Project Financer), and the Naval and Oceanic Engineering Excellence Center (CEENO).

Next steps

After signing with Rio Naval, Transpetro is now getting ready to sign agreements for the seven vessels that will be ordered from the Maua Jurong (RJ) and Itajai (SC) shipyards.

Maua Jurong will build four product vessels, for an overall price of $277,079,543, while Itajai will build three LPG (gas) vessels for tan overall price of $130.9 million.

Transpetro's bid results were announced in March 2006. By its reckoning, the total vessel value ($2,483,479,543) was only one percent above what would have been paid if the ships had been ordered abroad, "considering the financial equivalency and the need to customize the ships, which have complex design and construction requirements."

In total, the company's Fleet Modernization & Expansion program foresees the construction of 42 vessels.