Sep
28
MEXICO CITY – Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos said it will carry out its most significant fleet upgrade of the past two decades, a plan that will carry an initial investment cost of more than $600 million and involve replacing 132 ships.
Pemex CEO Juan Jose Suarez Coppel said in a press conference Thursday that the company will look to local shipbuilders to meet its needs but may have to sign contracts elsewhere for more sophisticated vessels.
The northwestern Spanish region of Galicia is one place Pemex may look to renew some ships in its fleet, Suarez Coppel said.
“Galicia is a very competitive place. We’ve seen all the alternatives and it has interesting terms for the company,” the chief of the world’s No. 4 oil company said.
On Sept. 19, Pemex signed an agreement for the construction in Galician shipyards of two floating hotels, or flotels, which serve as accommodations for workers in the offshore oil industry.
“We hope to build other vessels in Galicia,” Suarez Coppel said, noting that the conditions there appear to be the most favorable.
The CEO and other Pemex executives said in the press conference that 81 ships belonging to the company’s exploration and production division need to be renewed, 51 of them basic or supply vessels and 30 more complex ships.
An initial auction for the construction of 21 ships will be held in a period of between three and six months and require an investment outlay of between $400-500 million.
A total of 51 vessels (tugboats, barges and shallow-draft vessels) belonging to Pemex’s refinery division will need to be renewed at a cost of some $240 million.
These expenditures will be the biggest Pemex has made in decades to renew its fleet of ships, the executives said.
The supply vessels are to be built by 2015 and the ships for the refinery division are to be renewed between 2013 and 2014.
Some of the ships to be replaced are more than 30 years old, Suarez Coppel said, stressing the need for Pemex to modernize its fleet and increase capacity.
The CEO said Pemex may also look to sign contracts with South Korean shipyards, which already have built several tankers for the company.
Suarez Coppel, who was joined at the press conference by representatives of Mexican shipyards, said Mexico lacks sufficient capacity to build certain types of ships. EFE
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