Following the public notice on the first week of 2024 with the final qualification of 9 vessels in Petrobras opportunity for up to 20 PSVs issued last year, the Brazilian Oil Major has now disclosed the public award for all 9 vessels previously qualified. Amongst the awards, there were 3 PSV OSRV, 2 PSV Multipurpose and 4 PSV 4500 General Cargo. The vessels that were left out in this tender were disregarded by Petrobras either for not meeting the desired mobilization window, or due to their hiring demand being already met. As reported by WSB in the news “foreign flag in the sun” (check below), the highlight of the tender was the 2 foreign flagged PSVs from Edison Chouest chartered for 4 years firm, even though the Brazilian rules and regulations of circularization only allows for a maximum one year permit for such vessels.
Foreign flag in the sun
After many years of Brazilian flag domain, Petrobras qualified foreign flagged PSVs on a public tender with more than 1 year charter period. In end-December Petrobras disclosed the partial result for the hire of up to 20 vessels with 2 Edison Chouest vessels qualified under “4500 general cargo” and yet another 3 Edison Chouest vessels remaining under analysis under “4500 multipurpose”.