Page 38: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2013)

38 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? AUGUST 2013 The Shipyard EditionThere has been a signi Þ cant increase in shipyard con- struction in Brazil in yards large and small alike. Mari- time Reporter?s Contribut- ing Editor in Brazil visited Brasa Shipyard in Rio de Ja- neiro and spoke to Philippe Levy, Country Manager for SBM Offshore, who is one of the yard directors. Brasa Shipyard is building FPSO deck modules for integration onto FPSO hulls. by Claudio Paschoa?Brasa shipyard was created by Syn-ergy and SBM in order to simplify FPSO module integration for FPSOs leased to Petrobras for pre-salt oil production,? said Philippe Levy, Country Manager for SBM. ?A holding company named SNV was created, with its assets being the shipyard and the crane barge, with equal shares belonging to Synergy and SBM Offshore.? Since Brasa shipyard is located in the city of Niterói, across Guanabara Bay from the city of Rio de Janeiro, SNV managed to resolve three major bottle-necks at the same location. ?These bot-tlenecks are, the shipyard construction site, a heavy lift crane barge and an in- tegration quayside, therefore allowing us to streamline production, while at the same time eliminating the problem of Þ nding a quali Þ ed workforce, by being located within a major city,? said Levy. The new company also has a project of-Þ ce in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Brasa shipyard can be seen on the right side of the Rio-Niterói bridge, just be-fore arriving at the bridge toll booths. The main construction area and ofÞ ce building are located right next to the bridge and across the channel from the integration quay. While walking through the construction area, which has been fabricating 10 deck modules for the Ci-dade de Ilhabela FPSO, it became ob-vious that there was a large amount of detailed work going into each module?s construction, which demands highly specialized labor and stringent quality control. The shipyard is equipped with six mobile cranes (60-130 ton) and two munck trucks (10 ton), two tower cranes (5 ton) and six forklifts (2.5/7/15 ton), one truck with ß at trailer, high standard welding equipment and extensive scaf-folding equipment.?SBM has a long track record in Brazil with a long and varied list of successful projects including loading and ofß oad-ing terminals, turret mooring systems, and turnkey FPSO units. Over the last 15 years SBM Offshore has operated eight FPSOs in Brazil,? said Levy. Until 2008, SBM operations in Brazil comprised two shore bases in Macaé and Vitória, from which seven FPSO units were success-fully operated. In 2008 a new design of-Þ ce was opened in Rio de Janeiro. ?Brasa shipyard commenced opera-tion in the second quarter of 2012 with the fabrication of the topsides modules for the FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela, with around 1,600 people directly and indi-rectly involved in the execution of the project. When completed the modules will be lifted from the yard by the crane barge and transported across the channel Brasa: FPSO Modules a Specialty (Photo: Brasa)Begining of module construction at Brasa shipyard MR #8 (34-41).indd 38MR #8 (34-41).indd 388/2/2013 9:01:39 AM8/2/2013 9:01:39 AM