Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - hulls

Ballast water is used to stabilize ships at sea, being pumped-in to weigh down a ship for safe navigational conditions when the ships hull is not filled with cargo for a voyage. Controlling the amount of ballast water embarked helps to reduce stress on the hull while providing transverse stability when underway. The correct use of ballast also makes ship propulsion more efficient and increases maneuverability. By correctly controlling the amount and location of ballast within the hull an officer can compensate for weight lost due to fuel and water consumption during a voyage, always maintaining optimum stability. Just by reading the paragraph above it becomes clear to any landlubber that ballast water is vital for safe ship operations.

Brazilian shipyards are trying to become internationally competitive in terms of product quality, pricing and keeping to deadlines. There are presently around 280 units in construction in Brazil, including PSVs, tankers and rigs, with a workforce of around 56 thousand and growing. The shipyards are full to capacity and even though there are over twenty new yards being built, there is still a demand for more. One of the main problems faced by these new yards is to maintain a high quality standard in order to compete with experienced foreign yards. This is no easy feat. However many of these new yards being built have some form of partnership with international shipyards, looking to enter the Brazilian market.

With the intention of making a more efficient pre-salt FPSO production in Brazil, Petrobras had selected the Rio Grande Shipyard works and dry-dock to be their FPSO production center. There was still a need for a tender process to select which local company would be responsible for the construction process of the first 8 FPSOs to be built from a total of 40 FPSOs originally calculated to be needed for the pre-salt development. These units are part of the new strategy for the construction of production units, designed to simplify projects and standardize equipment. Producing identical hulls in series will accelerate the construction phase, and allow economies of scale and cost optimization.