Vale Disables Pier Leased by Petrobras at Tubarão Port in Espírito Santo; Approximately 300 Employees Will Be Laid Off

The Contract Between Vale and Petrobras Ended Yesterday (31/05). The State-Owned Company Was Providing Bunker Supply Services at the Port of Tubarão, in Vitória

Yesterday, Monday (31/05), the last contract addendum between Petrobras and Vale ended, allowing the state-owned company to supply ships from the Port of Tubarão, in Vitória, in the state of Espírito Santo. Since the agreement will not be renewed, Petrobras will have to demobilize the base, which is operated by Transpetro. In addition, Vale announced that it would give a deadline, until June 10, for operations to be discontinued. With the deactivation of the pier, in addition to the loss of cargo and revenue, around 300 employees will be laid off. See also: Petrobras Subsidiary Transpetro Closed Contract with Propav for Service Implementation. 300 Jobs Will Be Created During the Works

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Petrobras Bunker Supply Contract at the Port of Tubarão, Espírito Santo

In a statement, Vale informed that it chose to discontinue its bunker loading operation at the Port of Tubarão for operational reasons. Vale also reported that it had previously extended the deadline to find alternatives. It is still unclear what the future of the operation will be. If Petrobras does not soon decide on another location to transfer the activity, ships will not be able to refuel on the coast of Espírito Santo.

Vale states that the deadline for Petrobras, responsible for the operation, expired in 2019 and was extended by one year to allow for the search for other alternatives, having been extended again. The operation will be maintained until the beginning of June to fulfill ongoing contracts.

Petrobras Had Already Made a Contract Addendum with Vale

In September of last year, the contract between the parties was about to expire, and at that time, Petrobras did not have a plan B. The bunker terminal at the Port of Tubarão has been leased to Petrobras since 1996 and operated by Transpetro, a subsidiary of the state-owned company.

In November 2020, when the one-year addendum to the contract expired, the state government intervened and negotiated with Vale and Petrobras. The negotiation requested that the deadline be extended by another six months to allow time for the operations to be negotiated to another location.

When announcing the agreement between Vale and the state-owned company, the governor of Espírito Santo, Renato Casagrande, commented that Petrobras would seek alternatives with the Espírito Santo Dock Company (Codesa). One possibility is that Petrobras’s bunker supply operation would be transferred to areas of the ports of Vitória and Vila Velha.

See Also: Vale Signs Agreement with Nextracker for $500 Million Project in Minas Gerais

The miner Vale chose Nextracker to supply its bifacial solar trackers, optimized with artificial intelligence for the solar energy project called “Sol de Cerrado” in the state of Minas Gerais. The 766 megawatt-peak (MWp) solar energy complex, which will be one of the largest in Brazil, will help supply Vale’s mining operations in the Jaíba area, in Minas Gerais, and will be interconnected to the regional transmission grid.

The “Sol do Cerrado” project, announced in December last year, received investments of $500 million and will play an important role in Vale’s efforts to achieve its corporate sustainability goals. Once operational, the solar energy project will supply 13% of the miner’s total energy needs in Brazil and will offset emissions from the GHG Protocol Scope 2 by up to 136,407 tons of CO2 per year.