Petrobras has green-lighted the chartering of offshore support vessels to cover short-term demand in the next couple of years and also revealed long-term plans to hire newbuild tonnage, which will focus on new technological solutions for the efficiency of its operations and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“With the shortage of OSVs around the world and no signs of slowdown in oil demand in the coming years, Petrobras makes a bullish move to secure its OSVs needs, supporting the growth of its operations,” brokers at Arctic Offshore noted.
The Brazilian state-controlled oil company estimates that it will charter around 200 OSVs by 2028, both to replace current contracts and to increase the fleet. Of this total, it is expected that there will be opportunities for up to 38 newbuilds, kicking off with a tender for 12 platform suppliers, set to be released over the coming days.
In subsea activities, Petrobras said it is in an advanced stage of negotiation for contracting short-term demand for the period 2024–2027 and finalising its newbuild strategy for 2028 and beyond. In the floating production segment for the 2028+ scenario, the company is carrying out six contracting processes for four chartered and two owned units.
Petrobras will have 25 drilling rigs this year, with plans to up this number to 30 by 2028. As for vessels operating on the Brazilian coast through cabotage, there are studies to acquire new ships in addition to the traditional competitive chartering processes. Petrobras’ current fleet stands at 26 ships, and a further 16 units are being studied, with the potential to be built within the 2024-2028 plan horizon.
