Brazil: First Dismantling of Oil Vessel Running a Year Late

April 15, 2025

A dispute between state-run oil company Petrobras and steelmaker Gerdau will delay the first dismantling of an oil production vessel in Brazil by at least a year, people familiar with the matter said, in a setback for local shipyards.

The operation had been hailed as a chance to reinvent Brazil's struggling shipbuilders as industrial recyclers, generating jobs as Petrobras plans to spend $9.9 billion in the next five years to retire another 10 ships of the same kind.

A dispute between state-run oil company
A dispute between state-run oil company Petrobras and steelmaker Gerdau will delay the first dismantling of an oil production vessel in Brazil by at least a year. Credit: Adobe Stock/Luciano Luppa

The 45,000 ton production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), called P-32, was set to wrap up its decommissioning by December 2024 under a new Petrobras sustainability program.

Instead, the work began only last month, according to the head of a local metalworker's union in Rio Grande do Sul state Benito de Oliveira Goncalves. He said a dispute between Petrobras and Gerdau over removing petroleum residues from the vessel had stalled work for more than a year.

(Reuters)

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