Brazil’s shipbuilding industry eyeing new Petrobras tenders

Brazil’s shipbuilding industry is eyeing new Petrobras tenders, Ariovaldo Rocha, president of shipbuilding industry association Sinaval, told BNamericas. 

On the radar are calls for the construction of offshore support vessels, FPSOs and tankers. 

The state-run oil giant has just launched a tender to charter up to 10 oil spill recovery vessels (OSRVs). 

The process involves contracting vessels built in 2024 with a minimum local content of 40%, which is in line with the federal government’s aim of stimulating the domestic offshore shipbuilding industry. 

The tender follows the launch of a bidding process by Petrobras’ logistics subsidiary Transpetro in July to charter four handy class tankers. 

According to Rocha, the two processes are important for getting local shipyards back to work after almost 10 years of virtually paralyzed construction activity. 

“It also represents the realization of the intentions of this new government to promote the recovery of the Brazilian naval and offshore industry after years of neglect and abandonment,” he told BNamericas.  

Transpetro is also expected to announce a complement to its orders for oil and natural gas transport ships, considering that the program announced provides for the tendering of 25 ships. 

“In addition, Petrobras is expected to place orders for modules for FPSO-type platforms in greater quantity and weight than in previous orders, as announced to the market some time ago,” Rocha added. 

He assured that local shipyards have the capacity to build offshore support vessels, tankers and FPSOs. 

Petrobras has been fostering partnerships between domestic and foreign shipyards to bring at least part of FPSO construction to the country.

But Rocha does not believe this is a trend.

“It would only be a temporary condition while the shipyards become busier,” the Sinaval president said. 

He said that, in recent years, Brazilian shipyards have been forced to diversify their activities, intensifying ship repairs and even taking on operations as private-use terminals, given the lack of orders.   

'GREENER' VESSELS

According to the tender rules, the OSRV power-generation architecture must be diesel-electric, with diesel generator sets dedicated to main power generation. The main generators must be capable of operating with marine diesel with renewable content or similar. 

In addition, engines that are already capable of operating on marine diesel with renewable content and alcohol-based fuels, such as ethanol and methanol, will be accepted. In the latter configuration, the fuel supplied will be chosen by Petrobras.

Both the main generators and the vessel as a whole should be designed with the possibility of future conversion to alcohol-based fuels. 

The vessel must be equipped with a hybrid propulsion system with batteries (energy storage system), so that it can provide enough power for the ship to be able to hold position for at least 20 minutes in the worst case of a failure of the dynamic positioning (DP) system. 

The deadline for the delivery of the vessels varies between four and six years, and the contracts are for between eight and 10 years. 

The tender details are available on the Petrobras procurement website Petronect, under ID number 7004306735.