Transpetro to launch first Promef vessel to sea on May 03

Date: 04/16/2010 10:12


The first vessel built under Transpetro's Fleet Modernization and Expansion Program (Promef) will set sail on May 03 from the Atlântico Sul Shipyard (EAS), in Pernambuco. The event will be attended president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Suezmax-type vessel is 274 meters long and capable of carrying a million barrels of oil.
This is the first tanker built in Brazil to be delivered to the Petrobras System in more than 13 years, a period during which the Brazilian shipbuilding industry virtually disappeared from the radar, after having been the second biggest global manufacturer in the 1970s. Based on the Promef, one of the major structuring projects of the GAP (Growth Acceleration Program), the domestic shipyards modernized their operations and new production units, such as the Atlântico Sul, appeared in the Country. Today, Brazil already has the fifth largest oil tanker order portfolio in the world.

"The first Promef vessel to set sail is a historical fact. We went through a true epic to get to it. There was much suspicion when we started the program. But this year, with the first vessels setting sail, we will see real proof of the wisdom and strength of the Promef, which is now entering a new stage, particularly since we are already working on launching its third phase," said Transpetro CEO Sergio Machado.

The Promef has already generated more than 15,000 direct jobs, a figure expected to climb to 40,000. In its first two phases, the program envisages the construction of 49 vessels in Brazil, 33 of which have already been hired. The other 16 are currently in the contracting phase. Also in this first half of the year, the second vessel of the program will also set sail, this time from the Mauá Shipyard, in Niterói (RJ).