Brazilian President Takes Part in Delivery Ceremony of First Promef Vessel

This Friday, Nov. 25, President Dilma Rousseff took part in the delivery ceremony for the Celso Furtado, the first ship built for Petrobras by a Brazilian shipyard in 14 years. The Celso Furtado is one of 49 new vessels to be ordered under the Transpetro Fleet Modernization and Expansion Program (Promef).

With overall length of 183 meters and capacity of 56 million liters, the Celso Furtado is the first of a batch of four vessels ordered by Transpetro from the Mauá Shipyard. It will be used for inter-state transport of oil derivatives in Brazil. On its maiden voyage, the ship will carry fuels produced in São Paulo refineries to Northern and Northeastern Brazil.

“Today, we are proving that Brazilians know how to build ships,” said President Dilma Rousseff in her address. “In Brazil, we are not going to allow jobs to be transferred abroad. Our commitment is to the greatness of this nation.” The Celso Furtado has a domestic content index of 74%, which means that almost three-fourths of the resource used to build it were sourced in Brazil.

Transpetro CEO, Sergio Machado, highlighted the importance of the ceremony. “This is a historic moment for the nation’s shipbuilding industry and Merchant Marine. The delivery of this vessel really shows what the Brazilian people can achieve.” Mr. Machado made a point of beginning his address by paying tribute to Mauá Shipyard’s metal workers, with the words, “You are the true heroes of this story.”

The Head of the Postal Services, Wagner Pinheiro, also attended the ceremony, and a special postage stamp was released, commemorating the delivery of the Celso Furtado.

President Dilma Rousseff then handed over the Brazilian flag to be flown by the Celso Furtado to the ship’s Captain, Claudio Lisboa Nunes. Chief engineer Carlos Alberto do Nascimento received the logbook from Governor Sergio Cabral. The ship set sail on its maiden voyage at 2:15 pm.

The delivery of the Celso Furtado is further evidence of the power of the Promef program, which has revitalized Brazilian shipbuilding after decades of stagnation. The last vessel delivered by a Brazilian shipyard to Petrobras was the Livramento in 1997. Brazil currently holds the world’s fourth largest oil tanker portfolio and ranks fifth in terms of order book figures.

With an order for 49 oil tankers, the Promef program provided investments of the scale required to modernize the national fleet and set up three new shipyards in Brazil: the Atlântico Sul and STX-Promar shipyards in the state of Pernambuco and the Rio Tietê Shipyard in São Paulo.

These new installations will build waterway convoys to transport ethanol. At the turn of the century, Brazilian shipbuilders employed only 2,000 workers. It now has a workforce some 60,000 strong.

Three other Promef vessels have already been launched to sea and are currently at the completion stage: the Sérgio Buarque de Holanda and Rômulo Almeida at Mauá, and the João Cândido at Atlântico Sul. Of the 49 vessels planned for the first two stages of the program, 41 have already been ordered, with investments amounting to some R$9.6 billion. The remaining eight vessels are currently in the final bidding phase.

Transpetro has set up a Celso Furtado hotsite (www.promef2011.com.br), and visitors can take a virtual tour of the ship.

Shipbuilding stages

According to the traditions of shipbuilding, a number of ceremonies are held to mark various stages in vessel construction: cutting the first steel plate, laying the keel, launch to sea and final delivery to the ship-owner.

There is an important difference between launch to sea and delivery to the ship-owner:

Launch to sea – After the hull has been built, the vessel is christened and launched to sea to be completed. This frees up the dock for starting new vessel. The launched vessel is transferred to the shipyard’s quay.

At the quayside, the ship is fitted out, systems interconnected and final equipment tests run. Before delivery, the vessel is usually put back into dry dock to clean the hull. Finally, seaworthiness tests are carried out by taking the vessel on short trips to test its overall performance.

Delivery – After completion and exhaustive testing, the vessel is certificated by an independent body, known as a Classification Society, and handed over to the ship-owner, ready for operation.

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World Maritime News Staff, November 29, 2011; Image: Petrobras