Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2, 2010)

10 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

NEWS

Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Kep- pel O&M), through its wholly-owned

Brazilian subsidiary, Navegantes Mar- itime Construction and Services, entered into an agreement with Brazil’s TWB

Group to acquire the Estaleiro TWB shipyard in Navegantes, Santa Catarina.

This acquisition is subject to the fulfill- ment of conditions by TWB Group.

This 7.6-ha shipyard will be operated by Keppel O&M’s specialized shipbuild- ing arm, Keppel Singmarine. It has a 300- m long waterfront and is equipped with a slipway, pipe and hull shops and an out- fitting quay. Keppel O&M’s total invest- ment in the yard, including further capital expenditure to upgrade and modernize the facility, will be in the region of about $50m. “Our latest acquisition reinforces

Keppel O&M’s Near Market, Near Cus- tomer strategy, and complements our

BrasFELS yard in Angra dos Reis in of- fering a slew of comprehensive solutions for Brazil’s offshore oil and gas sector,” said Chow Yew Yuen, President (the

Americas) of Keppel O&M. “Petrobras has announced plans to charter some 147 locally-built Offshore Support Vessels over the next five years, with at least 70% of the work on each newbuild to be car- ried out within the country. Through this new facility, we will bring our specialized shipbuilding expertise to the doorsteps of

Brazil’s offshore field development mar- ket to help satisfy the demand for robust support vessels.” To be named Keppel

Singmarine Brasil, the new yard will focus on the construction of Offshore

Support Vessels such as Anchor Handling

Tug Supply vessels, Platform Supply

Vessels, Oil Recovery Support Vessels and harbour tugs, among others. It will also be equipped to undertake the fabri- cation of offshore modules, which will be an added advantage for Keppel to support the execution of major projects at the

BrasFELS yard.

The modernization program planned for Keppel Singmarine Brasil will in- clude upgrading the existing slipway, as well as constructing a new slipway, a wharf, heavy lift gantry cranes and pipe and hull shops fitted with modern ma- chinery and equipment. Keppel’s new yard is expected to be operational by the second half of 2010. At full capacity, it is estimated to be able to complete an aver- age of eight vessels a year.

Shipyard Acquisition

Keppel Fortifies Brazil Operations