Petrobras will not build entire platforms, says director – 05/08/2023 – Market

Petrobras will help revitalize Brazil’s shipbuilding industry, with contracts to decommission old platforms or manufacture modules for new vessels, but not to build entire platforms, Carlos Travassos, Executive Director of Engineering, Technology and Innovation, told Reuters. .

Jobs created by the shipbuilding industry anchored by Petrobras contracts have been a fundamental pillar of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s political program since his first election in 2002.

That year, he said that the platforms could be built in Brazil, and ordered the return of two that were in the Atlantic Ocean on their way to Asia for work, arguing that the state-owned company could not export these jobs. Lula recently completed the complete alteration of the company’s top leadership.

However, the company sees limitations in bringing work to Brazil, such as the construction of the hull, which is normally done in Asia, for the two dozen FPSO-type platforms that it plans until 2027, said the director.

“No country builds the entire FPSO”, said Travassos in Houston, using the acronym for floating platforms capable of storing and transferring oil. “The industry [naval] Brazilians need to bet on their vocations.”

The hulls of these vessels are highly customized and any country would take years on the learning curve before establishing a stable production line, he said. The initial process would likely result in higher costs and late deliveries.

It would also delay the company’s plans to increase its output on projects it leads by nearly a quarter, to 4.7 million barrels per day of oil and gas by 2027. Each FPSO could cost as much as $3 billion. 9 billion) to be built.

Petrobras’ shipbuilding strategy puts Lula’s willingness to use the state company to generate jobs in the country to the test, a strategy he applied in his first two terms, but not without controversy.

The metallurgist and naval industry unions, which supported the election of the president, sent open letters last month publicly pressuring the government to review the Petrobras contracting process, in order to increase orders in Brazil.

They criticized the hiring system concentrated in just three shipyards: EBR, Keppel Fels and Jurong, the last two in the same Asian group.

“We see a very good opportunity for the market [naval] Brazilian, but not in an FPSO hull. We see it in a module, where there is a lot of technology covered,” said Travassos.

Building modules is less complex, Travassos said. It requires smaller construction sites, can be more easily replicated, and workforce experience can be transferred to building refining, biodiesel, or hydrogen plants.

“Once Brazil qualifies to build modules, it will have a much greater opportunity to perpetuate the business, instead of learning to make FPSO hulls and competing with Korea, China,” he said.

Steel unions and the shipbuilding lobby have asked Petrobras to voluntarily raise the local content of at least five platforms, for the Albacora, SEAP and Sépia and Atapu fields.

“What I have of local content placed today cannot be met by the market. So it doesn’t make sense to raise it”, said Travassos.