Houston-based ABS has marked the 60th anniversary of its activities providing cl ...

Houston-based ABS has marked the 60th anniversary of its activities providing classification services to the Brazilian shipping and offshore industries. At present, nearly 60% of the classed offshore units in operation off Brazil have been built to - or are being maintained to - ABS Rule standards. Industry firsts for ABS in the region include the classification of the first jack-up platform built in Brazil, in 1968, and the Petrobras 31, the first VLCC (very large crude carrier) converted to an FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessel) in Brazil. ABS was recently awarded classification for the pilot FPSO for the giant Tupi pre-salt field in the Santos basin. Ultimately, several FPSOs are planned for the field. Meanwhile, complex deepwater field developments are calling for an increase in offshore supply vessels (OSVs) in the region. ABS currently classes approximately one-third of the world’s fleet of offshore supply and support vessels and is assisting regional owners with the development of larger and more technologically advanced workhorses to meet the demands of future deepwater developments off Brazil. Within the shipping sector, Transpetro, the tanker arm of Petrobras, opened 2008 with an order for the first 10 vessels in its planned fleet expansion, all to be built to ABS class. The vessels are a ‘first’ in many categories - the first tankers to be built in Brazil since 1997, the first vessels to be built in Latin America to the new IACS Common Structural Rules (CSR) for tankers, and the first series of ships contracted to Estaleiro Atlantico Sul’s Suape shipyard, currently under construction in Pernambuco. In addition, the first jack-up units to be built in Brazil for more than two decades, a two-unit order, are to be built by Odebracht for Petrobras in the state of Baiha, to ABS class.