Brazil AREA REPORT | 19
“2015 WAS A FANTASTIC YEAR RESULTS-WISE” Arnaldo Calbucci
then the usual horse-trading and price-cutting negotiations dragged on for two, three and five months respectively. On top of that, Wilson, Sons Ultratug had another vessel – Mandriao, a newbuild from Poet Shipyard in China – laid up since the end of last year. The vessel was still laid up as OSJ went to press. This was despite Wilson, Sons moving it over from a foreign flag to the Brazilian alternative register (the REB). It is now in Guanabara Bay awaiting spot business. Pardela, a sistership of Mandriao, is currently being built at the same yard and is due to be delivered by July. Another vessel, yet to be named, is due later this year. According to Mr Calbucci, who was long experience in the OSV industry in Brazil and was on the board of the Association of Brazilian Offshore Support Vessel Operators (ABEAM) from 2003 to 2011 when his Wilson, Sons colleague Luiz Gustavo Bueno Machado took over his post, Wilson, Sons will also receive two more platform supply vessels (PSVs) from its own Guarujá shipyard before 2016 is out. These were going to be PSV 4500s but have now been upgraded to PSV 5000s such is the confidence of the company that the market will pick up at some point. “By the end of this year, we will be operating 23 vessels,” said the veteran OSV executive. “That would then allow us to REB half of the tonnage of the 20 Brazilian-flagged vessels we will have in our fleet by then. So we could – if the market picks up – add 10 more ships to our fleet under the REB if we want to. Our idea is to maintain our investment levels as they are and see what will happen in the future. In the medium term, that will be our policy.” One other difficulty encountered by Wilson, Sons Ultratug over the past 20 months or so has been the difficult saga involving Varun Shipping and three vessels – the three anchor-handling tug/supply 15000 vessels Subhiksha, Sudaksha and Suvarna – for which the Brazilian company has been acting as an Empresa
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Brasileira de Navegação (EBN or Brazilian Shipping Company). Suvarna was built in 2002 and the other two in 2001, and they initially had four-year contracts with Petrobras with options for four one-year extensions added, but sources in Brazil say that proper maintenance was not carried out on the vessels, hence the withdrawal of the charter from the Brazilian oil giant. A source close to Wilson, Sons told OSJ that the relationship with Mumbai-headquartered Varun had been fraught for a couple of years now and that, early last year, the three vessels had been arrested for money and fees owed to Wilson, Sons and other companies. Petrobras froze their contracts, and they have laid at anchor in Guanabara Bay waiting for a legal resolution to these unpaid debts. “The arbitration process has been underway for nearly two years now and may be resolved this year,” said the source, “but these things are complicated and can take time. Wilson, Sons saw its fleet decline from 18 down to 15, but it is now back up to 19 and will total 23 by the year’s end, and from then on, they will nearly all be Brazilian-flagged, so the company is in a good position for the upturn when it comes.” If Wilson, Sons bolsters its fleet up to 23, the company will become the third-biggest player in the Brazilian market alongside Bravante and DOF/Norskan, but these two have far more foreignflagged vessels and are struggling to maintain Petrobras contracts, so Wilson, Sons may even find itself in second position – out of 46 OSV operators – behind only Bram Offshore (part of Edison Chouest) with 55 OSVs, according to statistics released in February 2016. The improved operating profit for Wilson, Sons Group was reflected in strong cash generation with net cash flows from operating activities for the period of US$154.5 million compared to US$118.0 million in 2014. OSJ
Offshore Support Journal | June 2016