Petrobras approves more OSV contracts

FEBRUARY 10, 2014 — Brazilian national oil company Petrobras reports that its Executive Board has approved the contracting of eight support vessels for its offshore activities. They are part of the third Fleet Renewal Plan for Offshore Support Vessels (Prorefam). In this fifth round, four vessels were contracted from Edison Chouest’s Bram Offshore, which will build the vessels at its Navship shipyard in Santa Catarina state; three from Starnav Serviços Marítimos, with construction planned for the Detroit shipyard, also in Santa Catarina; and one from DOF subsidiary Norskan, which will use the Vard shipyard in Rio de Janeiro state.

Prorefam was launched in 2008 and contains plans to contract 146 vessels in total, over seven rounds. The local content required for the construction phase is 50% for Anchor Handling and Tug Supply (AHTS) models, and 60% for Platform Supply Vessels (PSV) and Oil Spill Response Vessels (OSRV) models.

Eighty seven (87) vessels had been contracted by the fifth round. Additionally, proposals for the sixth round of contracts were received on February 4, and are currently undergoing technical review. The seventh round will be launched in March and the respective contracts would be signed in the second half of this year.