Transpetro issues LPG tender

Brazil’s Transpetro, the shipping arm of Petrobras, is inviting 19 shipbuilders, including nine foreign companies, to bid on a contract for eight LPG carrier newbuildings. The vessels include four 7,300-cbm gas ships originally slated to be built at southern Brazil’s Itajai shipyard. Earlier this month, the company cancelled the order before contracts were signed. It alleged the yard’s new owners, Spain’s Elcano, showed no interest in building the ships, a charge an official at the yard denies.

Transpetro, which has a preference for domestic-built vessels, says ten Brazilian yards and nine foreign yards have been invited to bid on the new eight-ship contract. In addition to the former Itajai newbuildings, the winning shipbuilder will construct two 12,000-cbm ships and two 4,000-cbm units. Sources close to Petrobras say that among the domestic yards under consideration is a proposed greenfield facility in the northeastern state of Ceara.

Transpetro says it will receive financial and technical proposals in October, and it hopes to sign contracts by the end of the year. The LPG carriers are part of a 49-ship expansion program by the Rio de Janeiro-based owner, which currently owns 53 vessels.

Sources say that Transpetro is in the final stages of negotiations with domestic Atlantico Sul shipyard to build four Suezmax tankers and three Aframaxes. The deal would lift the Recife-area yard’s Petrobras orderbook to 22 tankers and one rig hull.

Negotiations also are still under way with Maua Shipyard in Rio de Janeiro to build a trio of products tankers.