Sete Brazil News

Enseada Shipbuilding was established to build deepwater drillships for Petrobras. Seventy percent of the company is owned by a consortium composed of Brazilian companies, Odebrecht (50 percent), OAS (25 percent), UTC (25 percent), with the remaining 30 percent belonging to Japanese shipbuilding giant, Kawasaki Heavy Industry (KHI). With all the Brazilian shareholders involved in the Car Wash “Lava Jato” operation, investigating corruption and embezzlement schemes with Petrobras, Kawasaki is a key partner, as is it not only responsible for technology transfer and providing professional training for the local workforce and operational consultancy in several areas within the shipbuilding process, as it also offers credibility to the shipyard.

A consortium of Japanese shipyards decided to sell its stake of Ecovix, which controls the Rio Grande Shipyard, reports Reuters. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, four other shipbuilders said in October 2013 acquired 30% of Ecovix-Engevix Construcoes Oceanicas in a deal reportedly worth some 30 billion yen (about $305 million at the time). In addition to MHI, the Japanese group includes Mitsubishi Co and the Imabari, Namura and Oshima Shipbuilding companies. Mitsubishi Heavy owns about half of the stake, bought through a special-purpose company. The buyer of the slice will be the Jackson Empreendimentos, parent company of Engevix contractor and owner of 70% of Ecovix.

ABB won orders worth $160m from Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd. for the design, supply, supervision of installation, testing and commissioning of the main electrical systems for seven next generation drill ships that will operate in the deep water oil and gas fields off the coast of Brazil. The orders were booked in the fourth quarter of last year and first quarter of this year. The ships will be used to drill wells in the enormous offshore pre-salt fields off the southeast coast of Brazil.