Athens: ER Offshore Navegação, the Brazil-based ship management subsidiary of ER Offshore, has been awarded an Empresa Brasileira de Navegação (EBN) licence to operate as a shipping company in the country.
ER Offshore says the licence will allow the company “to work with its clients in a closer, more direct fashion in the future” – its most important Brazilian customer being Petrobras.
Six of ER Offshore’s 13 offshore vessels have been chartered to Petrobras in Brazil since 2010; all six are currently deployed in the Campos Basin, near Rio de Janeiro.
The EBN licence legally requires that at least 66% of the crew onboard the vessels operating in Brazil are Brazilian nationals.
“Brazil is a key offshore market. Although the economic environment is currently challenging, we are confident that the Brazilian offshore business will develop positively in the future. By establishing the EBN, we are underlining the importance of this market for our company,” Rainer Kehl, managing director of ER Offshore Navegação, said in a statement today.
Five employees work at ER Offshore Navegação’s office in Macaé, 190 km from Rio de Janeiro. The company opened a second office in the city in February this year.
