OFFSHORE EXPERTS A new yard in South America and new orders from Norwegian customers are keeping up the momentum of growth at STX OSV, the specialist in the design and building of vessels for the offshore oil and gas industry. Peter Mercer reports.
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his April, STX OSV reached an important milestone in its expansion into the fastgrowing Brazilian off-shore market when its subsidiary, Estaleiro Promar SA, received an environmental licence for the construction of a new shipyard in Suape, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Project development of the yard, which will join STX OSV’s existing yard in north-eastern Brazil, is to begin immediately and construction is expected to start later this year. The first vessels from the new yard are expected to begin construction
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in 2012 and full operations at the yard are scheduled for 2013. The first ships to be built at the new yard will be eight LPG carriers for Petrobras’ subsidiary Transpetro, the largest oil and gas transportation company in Brazil. When these ships are completed, the company says that the yard will be used for off-shore vessel construction, almost tripling STX OSV’s delivery capacity in Brazil and very significantly reinforcing its already strong position in this dynamic market.
