Northeastern Brazil News

An accident with a shiploader at the sugar terminal in the Recife port in Northeastern Brazil suspended loading operations at the site, according to a note from shipping company Williams Brazil late on Thursday.The company said the shiploader collapsed and a part of the machine fell inside the cargo hold of a vessel that was docked at the port to load raw sugar.The press service at the Recife port confirmed the accident, adding that nobody was hurt.The port said experts are evaluating the situation and there is still no time frame for the repair.

ABB has won orders worth around $30 million from Casa dos Ventos, a leading renewables company in Brazil, to provide substations and related power infrastructure enabling the efficient integration of power from two new wind complexes (comprising 13 wind farms) into the country’s transmission grid. The orders were booked in the first quarter of 2015. The projects in northeastern Brazil are scheduled for completion in 2016. Once finished, they will be capable of generating enough renewable energy to meet the consumption needs of about 300,000 local households, avoiding the annual emission of approximately 325.000 tons of carbon dioxide. The two 216 and 130 megawatt (MW) wind complexes São Clemente and Tianguá will be located in the states of Pernambuco and Ceará.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA borrowed 4 billion reais ($1.8 billion) in a 17-year loan from Banco Bradesco SA to help pay for work on the Abreu e Lima refinery in northeastern Brazil, a source with direct knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday. Petrobras, as Brazil's state-controlled oil producer is known, will pay annual interest of 9.5 percent plus Brazil's TR minimum savings remuneration rate, said the source, who declined to be identified because terms of the deal are subject to banking secrecy laws in Brazil. The TR yielded 0.3 percent in the 12 months through the end of February, according to the BM&FBovespa exchange. The Abreu e Lima Refinery, or RNEST, outside of Recife is expected to cost $20 billion by the time it reaches full operating capacity of 235,000 barrels a day in mid-2015.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA borrowed 4 billion reais ($1.8 billion) in a 17-year loan from Banco Bradesco SA to help pay for work on the Abreu e Lima refinery in northeastern Brazil, a source with direct knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday. Petrobras, as Brazil's state-controlled oil producer is known, will pay annual interest of 9.5 percent plus Brazil's TR minimum savings remuneration rate, said the source, who declined to be identified because terms of the deal are subject to banking secrecy laws in Brazil. The TR yielded 0.3 percent in the 12 months through the end of February, according to the BM&FBovespa exchange. The Abreu e Lima Refinery, or RNEST, outside of Recife is expected to cost $20 billion by the time it reaches full operating capacity of 235,000 barrels a day in mid-2015.

No signs identify a barren field in northeastern Brazil that was meant to be the center of one of China's most ambitious agricultural forays into South America. In 2011, Chongqing Grain Group Corp announced plans to build a soy crushing plant, railways and a giant inland storage and transportation hub to export goods back to China. The total price tag: $2 billion. Yet today, the company has only managed to bulldoze a 100-hectare area on which the crushing plant might one day stand. Even that project is on hold, though, and shrubs are starting to grow back on the cleared terrain. The stalled plans are an example of the difficulties facing once-promising Chinese investments here.

MAN Diesel & Turbo representatives attended the delivery ceremony of the Suezmax tanker Zumbi dos Palmares. Powered by an MAN B&W 6S70ME-C type prime mover and three MAN 7L23/30H auxiliary engines, the vessel is the second ship built by Estaleiro Atlantico Sul (EAS) stemming from the Brazilian Government’s PROMEF shipbuilding program. The ceremony took place at the EAS shipyard in northeastern Brazil and was attended by the President of Brazil – Dilma Rouseff, President of Petrobras – Maria das Graças Silva Foster and President of Transpetro – Sergio Machado.

Reuters is reporting that the damaged Vale Beijing, the world's largest iron-ore carrier, was moved from its berth in Brazil for repairs. Tugs reportedly moved the ship from the dock in the port in Sao Luis in northeastern Brazil and will tow it to a location outside the shipping channel, a harbor pilot official told Reuters. The port in northeastern Brazil is operated by Vale. The 384,300 tons of ore loaded aboard the Vale Beijing, was mined by Vale at its giant Carajas complex in the Amazon region. The ship reportedly has a crack in its ballast tanks, though the source of the crack -- operational or structural -- is not yet known. (Source: Reuters)

A search team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has located the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 some 3,900 meters, or nearly 2.5 miles, below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil’s northeastern coast. The team left the port of Suape, Brazil, aboard the vessel Alucia on March 22, arriving at the search site on March 25. After one week of searching, one of the mission’s three autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), the REMUS 6000s, detected debris on the seafloor. A second vehicle was dispatched to the area for more detailed sonar mapping and photographic imaging.

Keppel FELS Energy has won a “take-or-pay” contract to supply electricity in northeastern Brazil. The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) was signed between Nordeste Generation Ltda, Keppel FELS Energy’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Brazil, and Commercializadora Brasileira de Energia Emergencial (CBEE) on January 10, 2002. The PPA is on a take-or-pay basis and payments are indexed to the US Dollar, with fuel cost as a pass-through. Based on estimated contract capacities, the total revenue for the contract period is expected to exceed $400 million. The Brazilian government will guarantee all obligations of CBEE under the PPA. Under the PPA, Nordeste Generation Ltda will install and operate a 190MW Barge Mounted Power Plant at the Port of Aratu, Salvador in northeastern Brazil.

As competition continues to escalate within the offshore energy industry, major players often differentiate themselves by offering improved and innovative services to customers. For Brazil-based NorSkan Offshore, an offshore supply vessel company, delivering exceptional quality and responsiveness to its customers is its top priority. NorSkan recently entered into a multi-year agreement with CapRock Communications of Brazil to receive reliable, turnkey satellite communications services. While communications providers are a dime a dozen, reliable providers are few and far between. In an effort to ensure the communication solution it deployed would deliver the same level of quality and dependability it is known for…