Saudi group offers BRL 30 million per aircraft carrier hull – 01/31/2023 – Environment

The business group Sela, from Saudi Arabia, contacted the Brazilian Navy to present an offer for the purchase of the hull of the aircraft carrier São Paulo.

The proposal was made on Monday (30), after the Sheet reveal that the Navy planned to sink the vessel in view of the advanced degree of degradation of the old airfield.

The Saudi group offers around BRL 30 million for the acquisition of the hull — an amount three times greater than that made by the Turkish shipyard Sök Denizcilik and Ticaret Limited.

The Turkish company even signed the acquisition contract with the Navy, but decided to return the aircraft carrier after Turkey vetoed the vessel’s entry into its territory.

With the proposal, the Navy decided to postpone the sinking of the hull, which was scheduled to take place on Thursday (1st). Military sources do not rule out the possibility of the vessel involuntarily sinking, as the ship’s buoyancy conditions are terrible.

“As attorneys for the Sela group of Saudi Arabia, we express interest in buying the hull of the former vessel ex-NaE São Paulo, thus assuming any and all operational costs with eventual structural repairs and removal of toxic waste”, wrote the lawyer Alex Christo Bahov , hired to represent the Saudis in the negotiation, in an email to the Navy.

“The Sela group is aware of the problems and high costs involving the hull of the former vessel ex-NaE São Paulo, final destination for the shipyard and scrapping with ‘green’ certification, as well as the need for insurance and other obligations inherent to the operation with the hull in issue,” he continues.

At the end of the email, the lawyer states that he expects a response from the Navy “shortly”, to start negotiations and send a team of specialists to inspect the hull “as soon as possible”.

In response, Bahov received a short answer: “I acknowledge receipt”, wrote third sergeant Leandro, stationed in the office of the commander of the Navy, Admiral Marcos Sampaio Olsen.

wanted by SheetBahov stated that the Saudi company is willing to carry out the procedures to prevent the sinking of the vessel.

“The main problem, which is the tear in the hull, can be solved. We can send a diver, if that doesn’t work, send it to a dry dock. You can even send a platform ship, which sinks and puts the aircraft carrier in the bulge What you can’t do is sink a ship like that, with the amount of dangerous material on board, such as asbestos and other chemical products that were declared in the inventory”, said the lawyer.

He added that the Saudi group has an economic interest in the aircraft carrier, with the dismantling of parts, in addition to the hull representing an asset for whoever acquires it.

“It is the largest warship in the Atlantic. It is a large ship, with a beautiful design, that has history. It participated in nuclear tests when it was still a French flagship. There is also a question of empowerment in acquiring something historic like the aircraft carrier. “

The aircraft carrier São Paulo is 266 meters long. Its armament consisted of three twin missile launchers and heavy-caliber machine guns.

Unused for decades, the ship was dismantled in France. In the 1990s, it went through a demining process, which removed 55 tons of toxic product.

Even so, asbestos is still present in the walls of the aircraft carrier – the substance was used as a thermal and acoustic insulator, to reduce the noise of the aircraft taking off for the crew.

The aircraft carrier was sold by the Navy to the Turkish shipyard Sök Denizcilik and Ticaret Limited, specialized in dismantling ships. The vehicle left Brazil on August 4, on a trip that generated protests around the world and was monitored in real time by Greenpeace.

The Navy says that, after the decision to demobilize the aircraft carrier, it opted to sell the hull for “green dismantling”, a safe recycling process for which the Turkish shipyard Sök is accredited and certified.

But, in the face of complaints about the illegal export of asbestos, the Turkish government revoked authorization for the vessel to enter on August 26, when the ship was approaching the Strait of Gilbraltar, on a trip made with the help of a tugboat.

The decision responded to complaints from organizations such as Greenpeace and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, which were protesting against receiving the ship.

Analyzes carried out by the NGO Shipbreaking on a twin aircraft carrier to the São Paulo identified 760 tons of asbestos on the vessel. In view of this, the organization began to question whether, in fact, the hull sent by Brazil would have the 10 tons of toxic substance as foreseen in the inventory.

Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) suspended the export license and ordered the ship to return to Brazil.

In Brazilian waters, the Turkish tugs left the aircraft carrier’s hull and the Navy returned to take control of the vessel.

The report of a technical inspection by the Navy carried out on the vessel on January 13 found tears in the hull, an increase in the level of flooding and corrosion.

“A critical increase in the degradation of the safety of the hull can be seen, whether due to the loss of buoyancy conditions, or the irreversible loss of the minimum stability in damage for navigation in the open sea, in addition to the increase in the extent of the damage to the hull”, warn the technicians, in a document obtained by the Sheet.

By mid-January, around 2,787 cubic meters of water had entered the hull. The limit for safe navigation is 3,530 cubic meters.

“It is possible to say that the safety of navigation can be guaranteed until the established limit of shipment of more than 743 m³ of water is reached, foreseen to happen, in the best hypotheses, in a maximum of four weeks”, he warns.

With no companies in Brazil to carry out the green dismantling provided for in the contract and with the imbroglio with the Turkish company, the Navy planned the controlled sinking of the vessel.

The technique used would involve a series of explosions to open holes in the hull, which would also take the more than nine tons of asbestos present in the vessel to the ocean.