Brazilian Government News

The presidents of France and Brazil on Wednesday launched a submarine built in the South American country with French technology in a program that aims to build Brazil's first nuclear-powered submarine by the end of the decade.Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attended a ceremony in the Itaguai shipyard near Rio de Janeiro, launching the third diesel-powered submarine built in a $10 billion partnership.Brazil first lady Janja da Silva smashed a champagne…

The water level at a major river port in Brazil's Amazon rainforest hit its lowest point in at least 121 years on Monday, as a historic drought upends the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and damages the jungle ecosystem.Rapidly drying tributaries to the mighty Amazon river have left boats stranded, cutting off food and water supplies to remote jungle villages, while high water temperatures are suspected of killing more than 100 endangered river dolphins.The port in Manaus…

A barge carrying three trucks and 2,000 empty cooking gas cylinders lies stranded on the vast sand banks of a diminished Rio Negro river after running aground last month, highlighting the plight of river transport in the Amazon region hit by severe drought.Officials warned that low river levels risk disrupting grains exports from nearby farm states. On the Madeira, they said barge routes used by grain firms such as Cargill, Bunge and Amaggi, are open but loads are being reduced as a precaution.Shipping and logistics group A.P.

Brazil sank a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off its northeast coast, the Brazilian Navy said, despite warnings from environmentalists that the rusting 1960s French-built ship would pollute the sea and the marine food chain.The 32,000-tonne carrier had been floating offshore for three months since Turkey refused it entry to be scrapped there because it was an environmental hazard and the ship was towed back to Brazil.The carrier was scuttled in a "planned and controlled sinking" late on Friday…

The U.S. soybean crop that farmers harvested in the fall of 2021 was the largest on record, as yields were bigger than previously estimated, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday.The higher U.S. production view comes as global demand for the oilseed soars and forecasts for South American harvests are cut due to hot and dry weather in key growing areas.Soybean futures briefly turned higher after the data was released."They lowered Brazil and Argentina," said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading.

The Brazilian government will send the first doses of COVID-19 shots to immunize Santos port workers, with vaccinations slated to begin this week at Latin America's largest port, according to a statement from maritime agent Williams on Wednesday.Williams said Infrastructure Ministry Tarcísio de Freitas made a public commitment to vaccinate the workers, citing an audio message dated May 23 that was shared publicly by the National Federation of Port Operators (Fenop).The move is a response to growing pressure from the workers, who threatened to go on strike if the immunization did not occur by M

Crude oil smudges have been spotted at some Brazilian beaches in the northeast state of Ceará, the country's navy said on Monday, almost two months after the area was hit by another oil slick.That was part of a broader spill, whose origin remains a mystery, that stained hundreds of beaches on Brazil's northeast coast between September and November, threatening marine life, tourism and fishing.The navy said samples of the new spill were being sent for analysis to a marine studies institute…

South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries Co. (SHI) has agreed to pay $75 million in penalties to avoid prosecution in the United States over its scheme to pay millions of dollars in bribes to Brazilian officials to win a contract.“Samsung Heavy Industries paid millions of dollars to a Brazilian intermediary, knowing that some of that money would be used to bribe high-level executives at Petrobras and obtain a lucrative shipbuilding contract,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s resolution is yet one more example of the Department’s continued commitment…

The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) is currently on-site in north-east Brazil attending the recent oil spill that has contaminated approximately 2,500 km of coastline in nine states.The source of the pollution remains unknown, although the Brazilian government has recently reported that they suspect a tanker passing along its coast in late July as being the polluter."Our involvement was requested directly by IBAMA, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, on 16th September 2019, a couple of weeks after oil was first spotted washing up on shore," the not-for-profit marine ship pollution response advisers said.ITOPF is normally requested on-site by a shipowner or their insurer…

Brazilian investigators said on Friday a Greek-flagged ship carrying Venezuelan crude was the source of oil tarring thousands of kilometers of coastline over the past two months.While prosecutors and police did not name the vessel, a prosecutors' document obtained by Reuters identified the ship as the Bouboulina, owned by Greece's Delta Tankers Ltd. Police said the tanker appears to have spilled the crude about 700 km (420 miles) off Brazil's coast between July 28-29, bound for Singapore with oil loaded at Venezuela's San José terminal.Delta Tankers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Brazil's solicitor general said the country would seek damages in the case…

Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA has received an initial payment of 549 million reais ($148.92 million) from Dutch marine engineering group SBM Offshore as part of a 1.22 billion-real leniency deal, the Brazilian government said on Monday.As a result of a long-running corruption investigation, SBM was accused of paying bribes to secure contracts with Petrobras, as the state-controlled oil company is known.($1 = 3.6866 reais)(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

For a long time there has been a deficit of trained maritime officers in Brazil, as for decades the only accredited training institutes were run by the Brazilian Navy, where a very limited number of prospective maritime deck and engine officers could be trained at its two training institutes in the country. That's all changing now with the Institute of Nautical Sciences (ICN) leading the way.With the discovery of the pre-salt in 2007 and the continued growth of the maritime and offshore sectors, the lack of qualified Brazilian officers became acute. For many years, and even today, most offshore captains and officers are foreigners, while there is a more significant number of local captains and officers in the merchant fleet.

ShipConstructor Software Inc. (SSI) says it is excited to see that the Brazilian Government has funded training on SSI’s ShipConstructor software. Below is background to that decision. Brazilian shipyard Estaleiro Atlântico Sul (EAS) is one of a select group of bright lights in the Brazilian shipbuilding industry. With the downturn in oil prices and the impact of “Operation Car Wash” causing the cancellation of Petrobras projects, several Brazilian shipbuilding and offshore shipyards have shut down. However, Estaleiro Atlântico Sul has five projects in its portfolio and other shipyards and agencies also continue with work. That means they will continue to need skilled workers both in their own offices and in the associated supply chain.

Brazilian government-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA expects higher oil exports this year than initial projections, Guilherme França, executive manager of trade and marketing, said Wednesday. Petrobras expects oil exports to reach 742,000 bpd by 2021 as the company advances development of its pre-salt oil reserves, which are capable of producing lighter varieties which are demanded internationally, França said. In March, França told Reuters in an interview that the company's oil exports would reach 450,000 bpd this year. That estimate has now been revised to 503,000 bpd, according to the executive. China is the company's main client, accounting for 56 percent of Petrobras's exports in the first quarter.

Subsea 7 has received an early termination of the day-rate contract for its pipelay support vessel (PLSV) Seven Mar from the state-owned Brazilian firm Petrobras. The termination is effective January 16, 2017, the company informed. The contract was due to expire next year. The Brazilian government has reportedly withdrawn the operating license for the vessel to prioritise ships within its own fleet. As a result of early termination the group backlog has diminished by approximately $106 million, Subsea 7 said on Monday. Seven Mar is 145 meters in length and has a beam of 27 meters. The vessel can accommodate 121 people. This is the second time for the Seven Mar to receive an early termination from Petrobras due to prioritization of Brazilian-flagged vessels.

Sete Brasil Participações SA presented a draft reorganization plan on Friday that includes seeking up to $5 billion in funding and downsizing business, three months after the Brazilian rig leaser sought court protection against 18 billion reais ($5.7 billion) in looming debt payments. Rio de Janeiro-based Sete Brasil is asking creditors, which include some of the world's leading shipbuilders and Brazil's largest lenders, to endorse a plan to help build between eight and 12 rigs, down from an original target of 28, Chief Executive Officer Luiz Eduardo Carneiro said in an interview. The plan was submitted to a court in Rio de Janeiro, where Sete Brasil's reorganization is being handled, said the firm.

Brazilian prosecutors on Thursday charged 12 people with a bribery scheme involving Dutch firm SBM Offshore NV, the world's top leaser of oil production ships, and state oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA . Police said they had four arrest orders as part of the scheme, dubbed "Operation Black Blood," though two of them involved suspects already in jail in the southern city of Curitiba, the epicenter of a broader investigation into price fixing and bribery on Petrobras contracts with engineering firms. Former Petrobras executives Pedro Barusco, Jorge Zelada and Renato Duque were charged with corruption along with former SBM sales agents Julio Faerman and Luis Eduardo Campos Barbosa da Silva, according to a statement from federal prosecutors.

Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said on Thursday that it began to test output from its Buzios offshore oilfield off Rio de Janeiro in the Santos Basin. Output will be limited to 15,000 barrels a day because systems to produce natural gas are limited, the company said in a statement. Petrobras, as the company is known, said it planned to produce in the area for six months to determine the field's long-term production capacity. Petrobras expects to start regular output from Buzios in 2016 using the P-74 floating production, storage and offloading vessel when the ship's conversion from an oil tanker at a Rio de Janeiro shipyard is complete.

Brasil Terminal Portuário (BTP), began the New Year with the establishment of two new productivity records. On February 10th while working the 6328 TEU capacity MSC Geneva, 206 moves per hour (MPH) were achieved while handling 1,980 containers, representing 44 crane moves per hour (MPH), surpassing the previous record of 35 crane MPH set in January. A joint venture between APM Terminals and Terminal Investment Limited (TIL), BTP began operations in November 2013, and handled 1.14 million TEUs in 2015, growing its  volume by 35% over 2014 levels in its first full-year of operation, to become the largest container terminal at the Port of Santos. Santos is South America’s busiest container port, with over 3.7 million TEUs handled in 2015.

No question that the market for new floating production systems has taken a battering. The past 12 to 18 months have been a difficult period for everyone in the business sector. Absence of new contracts has forced fabricators and equipment suppliers to make huge cutbacks in personnel and spending. But deepwater production will rebound – oil demand keeps growing -- and though the signs are mixed we see indications of the rebound starting. First some numbers about the state of the business. 261 oil/gas floating production units are currently installed on offshore fields.

The Brazilian government on Tuesday unveiled the discount rate that will be used to calculate internal rate of returns on as many as 29 port operation licenses that will be auctioned off to investors this year. In a statement, the finance ministry update the calculation for the so-called weighted average cost of capital for the upcoming port auctions to an annual 10 percent. The internal rate of return for the projects might differ from the estimate of the discount rate, or WACC, the statement added. The WACC is the rate that a company or project is expected to pay on average to debt and shareholders to finance itself. (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal

The Brazilian government plans to hold a new oil bidding round for areas in the subsalt polygon by 2017, the secretary of oil and gas at the Mines and Energy Ministry, Marco Antonio Almeida, said on Monday.   Almeida denied during a presentation in Rio that the current corruption scandal plaguing state oil company Petrobras was delaying the auction being held sooner.     (Reporting by Marta Nogeira; Writing by Reese Ewing; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Brazil has told Dutch SBM Offshore NV, the world's top oil production ship leaser, to agree soon to a $250 million bribery settlement if it wants to regain its biggest client in the world's largest oilship market, a government source told Reuters. The ultimatum gives SBM several days to sign a leniency deal that includes financial reparation and other clauses such as cooperation with a corruption investigation. The settlement, which has been under negotiation for months, would lift a ban on the Amsterdam-based firm from bidding for new business with Petrobras, Brazil's state-run oil company. A spokeswoman for SBM declined to comment on the ongoing discussions with Brazilian authorities.