News

27 Mar 2008

Brazil’s shipbuilding industry has been given "a significant boost" with an announcement by state oil giant Petrobras that it needs as many as 100 offshore oil and gas support vessels.
The company will release tenders for some of the new vessels "in the next few months" and will insist that the ships are locally built, according to São Paulo's Folha newspaper, which quoted, the company's director for supply and refining, Paulo Roberto Costa.

Speaking at the opening of the new national control centre for shipping divisionTranspetro, Costa said: "We want to encourage even more shipbuilding in Brazil."
LR-Fairplay said the tenders will be released in "parcels", given the large number of vessels involved.
Transpetro is spending in excess of US$1.2 billion a year on chartering, adding urgency to fleet renewal deadlines.