Berg Propulsion has made a significant new breakthrough into the fast-growing offshore vessel construction market in Brazil, just a few months after establishing a regional office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s shipping capital.

Berg has secured a contract to equip a 64m oil spill response vessel ordered by Astromaritima Navegacao at the Estaleiro Ilha (EISA) shipyard in Rio de Janeiro. Delivery of the vessel, which will operate for the Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, is scheduled towards the end of 2011.

Berg will supply a comprehensive propulsion package to the vessel. This includes both azimuth and tunnel thrusters, all fitted with Berg’s condition monitoring system.

Petrobras has recently announced plans to build over 140 offshore support vessels in order to expand and renew its fleet. The contract at EISA is one of the first to be placed under this multi-million dollar investment programme.

This is the first offshore vessel contract that Berg has secured since establishing its new office in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year, although the company has supplied equipment for numerous vessels of this type worldwide in the past. Project manager Jonas Nyberg says, “This order is highly significant as it shows that within a very short time we have been able to establish a presence in the Brazilian offshore vessel newbuild market, which augurs well for our future prospects. In particular we have established good relations with the Brazilian owners, who selected our offer on the basis of our proven technical expertise in this field and our unrivalled reputation for equipment reliability.”

Berg Propulsion’s new office is situated in downtown Rio de Janeiro, the main centre for offshore and commercial shipping in Brazil. The office will focus on new sales, after sales and service. Mr Nyberg adds, “Apart from selling new equipment our goal is to make sure we have the best service organisation in South America. We are already well on our way to achieving this aim.”

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