When Hamworthy was chosen to supply pump room systems for 10 Suezmax tankers on order for Brazilian state-owned operator Transpetro, technology was a more important factor than price.
Hamworthy has signed an order for 10 shipsets of pump room systems worth a total of around US$12 million with the new shipyard Estaleiro Atlantico Sul in the northern part of Brazil. Transpetro, the transport unit of the Brazilian national oil company Petrobras, ordered the 10 Suezmax tankers earlier this year. The series of 157,500 dwt ships are the largest of the 26 tanker newbuildings of various types and sizes that form the first phase of Transpetro’s fleet expansion and modernisation programme, for which construction of 42 tankers altogether is forecast.
“This is a major breakthrough for Hamworthy in Brazil,” said Terje Bjørnemo, Hamworthy’s sales director responsible for pump room systems, “as we have not had a pump room system order from Petrobras for 10 years. It is also a pleasure to announce that we won the contract for technological reasons rather than price. We are without doubt the frontrunner technology-wise.”
Each shipset of equipment for the Transpetro series will include: cargo and ballast pumps in Ni-Al-bronze from Hamworthy’s own foundry; steam turbines; electric motors; gas-tight power transmissions; stripping system; and stripping pump. The packages will be delivered from January 2009 throughout 2011.
The equipment will all be controlled and monitored by Hamworthy control systems. “Our pump room systems for discharging tanker cargoes are controlled by a PLC based control system where all signals are electric rather than pneumatic, a technology that we left behind in the mid 1980s,” Mr Bjørnemo said.
