Brazil's national development bank BNDES agreed to lend state-run oil company Petrobras 2.6 billion reais ($1.47 billion) to purchase seven tankers, the bank said on Tuesday. The agreement was signed with Petrobras's shipping unit Petrobras Transporte, or Transpetro, BNDES said in a statement. The loan advances Petrobras 90 percent of the cost of the construction of four Suezmax and three Aframax tankers, which will be used to transport crude oil and derivative products.
They will be built in the northeastern state of Pernambuco by shipbuilder Estaleiro Atlantico Sul (EAS), a company created in 2005 and owned by three Brazilian companies, including Camargo Correa, a diversified construction firm.
EAS launched its first ever ship, a Suezmax also destined for Petrobras, in May this year.
The target is for the ships to comprise around 70 percent locally produced parts, instead of the normal 60 percent target, because the steel used to build them will be sourced within Brazil, the statement said.
The Suezmax will each have capacity to carry 153,000 tonnes of cargo and the Aframax, 107,500 tonnes.
Though Brazil might be able to source vessels abroad at a lower cost, it is pursuing a policy of procuring ships and platforms from domestic industry to create jobs and spread around an anticipated rise in revenue from oil in the coming years.
Brazil discovered huge reserves of crude oil several miles beneath the ocean floor in 2007, one of the largest discoveries in the last decade that could contain anywhere between 50 and 100 billion barrels.
They will be built in the northeastern state of Pernambuco by shipbuilder Estaleiro Atlantico Sul (EAS), a company created in 2005 and owned by three Brazilian companies, including Camargo Correa, a diversified construction firm.
EAS launched its first ever ship, a Suezmax also destined for Petrobras, in May this year.
The target is for the ships to comprise around 70 percent locally produced parts, instead of the normal 60 percent target, because the steel used to build them will be sourced within Brazil, the statement said.
The Suezmax will each have capacity to carry 153,000 tonnes of cargo and the Aframax, 107,500 tonnes.
Though Brazil might be able to source vessels abroad at a lower cost, it is pursuing a policy of procuring ships and platforms from domestic industry to create jobs and spread around an anticipated rise in revenue from oil in the coming years.
Brazil discovered huge reserves of crude oil several miles beneath the ocean floor in 2007, one of the largest discoveries in the last decade that could contain anywhere between 50 and 100 billion barrels.