Adding: Petrobras set to increase service ships
Petrobras opens tender for service ships
Brazil's state-run Petrobras said today it opened a tender for 24 service ships, part of a bigger 146-boat order that will run through 2014 in the local market.
Petrobras said in a statement that once built, shipyards will lease the vessels to the company, said a Reuters report.
Supply ships account for almost half of the order, which also includes ships used in platform anchoring, tug boats and spill control boats.
Petrobras, which has a $112 billion investment plan through 2012, is actively expanding and refurbishing its fleet.
It has already contracted the construction of 23 tankers, and more orders are in the pipeline.
Petrobras chief executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli said today the company was discussing with shipbuilders a possible project to build two supertankers that would be four times bigger than the ones normally used in the industry.
The company plans to spend around $50 billion on new equipment purchases, including ships and refinery equipment.
It did not provide the value of the service ship order.
Petrobras fleet consists of about 60 ships it owns and about the same number of chartered ships.
The plan to build new ships in Brazil is designed to revitalise the local ship-building industry and boost the coastal dry freight sector.
Petrobras also plans to make a big order of offshore drilling rigs, which are scarce in the market and are getting more and more expensive to buy or lease as world oil prices are charting new records, Gabrielli said.
Petrobras, which last year made a huge discovery in the subsalt cluster in the offshore Santos basin, has 40 drilling rigs.
The Tupi field and other lesser explored but potentially giant subsalt finds require a lot of drilling.
"Because of the subsalt (exploration) we will need a considerable number of drilling rigs," Gabrielli said.
A Petrobras spokesman said the oil company was analyzing rig needs, but currently there were no definite orders.