NGO and labour unions raise concerns over Transpetro’s shipbreaking practices

A non-governmental organizations (NGO) and Brazilian labour groups have expressed their concerns about alleged dirty scrapping services by Transpetro, Brazil’s largest oil and gas transportation firm.

In a letter from the Brazilian labour federation CONTTMAF and one of its constituent unions SINDMAR (representing maritime officers) to Transpetro, the company is accused of “poor end-of-life fleet management”.

Transpetro, properly called Petrobras Transporte S.A. is said to have sent more than 20 vessels in the past five years to beaches in India and Pakistan where poorly-regulated or non-regulated shipbreaking activities are known to endanger the workers and the environment.

And Shipbreaking Platform, an NGO, has warned Brazilian authorities that some other Petrobras vessels destined for demolition, but still in Brazilian waters for now, could be marked for what would be illegal export to South Asia.

Shipbreaking Platform is a coalition of environmental, human rights and labour rights bodies that works to raise awareness of unsafe working conditions and toxic environmental threats that exist in the darker corners of the shipbreaking field.