By Jeb BlountMay 20 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA, which in November announced the largest Western Hemisphere oil discovery in three decades, plans to order 40 oil drilling ships and drill platforms worth about $30 billion for delivery by 2017. The deep-water drilling ships and semi-submersible rigs will explore for oil and gas in seas up to 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) deep, Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based company is known, said in a statement. Transocean Inc., the world's largest offshore driller, is paying about $750 million each for similar vessels, said J. Michael Drickamer, senior oilfield service company analyst with Morgan Keegan & Co. in Memphis, Tennessee. Petrobras plans to spend $112 billion through 2012 to help increase its oil and natural gas production and expand its refining and distribution operations. The discovery of 5 billion- to 8 billion-barrel Tupi field, the largest Western Hemisphere discovery since 1976, and the possibility of other large fields nearby, may require even more spending on offshore equipment, according to Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa. ``Building all the ships Brazil wants to build will likely be a challenge,'' said Judson Bailey, a shipping and oil analyst with the Houston office of Jefferies & Co Inc., an investment bank, in an interview. ``There is a shortage of almost everything in the offshore industry.'' Made in Brazil The plan was announced the day after Petrobras and shipping and construction industry officials met with Dilma Rousseff, chief of staff to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to map out how Brazilian industry and shipyards can increase their ability to build equipment needed by its oil industry in Brazil. While preference will be given to Brazilian-built equipment, foreign contractors and yards will also be allowed to bid on the ships, the Petrobras statement said. The Brazilian government has low-cost loans available for Brazilian ship construction. Petrobras hopes to spark the construction of these vessels by offering leases to builders and operators. Foreign companies already in Brazil building ships include Singapore's Keppel Corp. and SembCorp Industries Ltd., Galliano, Louisiana-based Edison Chouest Offshore, and Oslo-based Aker Yards ASA. Brazilian companies include construction companies Construtora Camargo Correa SA, Construtora Queiroz Galvao SA, Grupo Wilson, Sons, and Construtora Norberto Odebrecht SA. ``There are shortages and things will take time, but if the programs are big enough and the money there, much of the capacity to build the ships Petrobras needs in Brazil will be created,'' said Eli Sustgarten, an oil analyst with Longbow Securities in Independence, Ohio. Service Ship Orders Last week, Petrobras Chief Executive Officer Jose Sergio Gabrielli said the company also planned to order 146 offshore oil service ships over the next six years to manage, supply and service offshore rigs and platforms. ``You already have companies from the U.S. and other countries setting up in Brazil to take advantage of the shipbuilding growth expected,'' said Tim Coulton, a former shipyard manager, a shipbuilding consultant and owner of ShipbulidingHistory.com in Delray Beach, Florida. ``The big risk in this industry though, is to build huge capacity only to see demand disappear.'' Brazil, the world's second-largest shipbuilder after Japan in 1980, according to Lloyd's Register, built no ships over 100 tons in 1999. Rising Petrobras oil production has caused the industry to revive. An industry that built nothing nine years ago and employed only about 2,000 workers, now has more than 80 firm orders for ships and 40,000 workers, according to Sinaval, Brazil's shipbuilders association. Transpetro Those orders include more than 20 tankers from Transpetro, Petrobras' transportation unit. Transpetro may announce another order for at least 16 more tankers ships by the end of May, Sergio Machado, President of Transpetro said in an interview last week. Petrobras preferred shares, the company's most-traded class of stock, rose 1.66 reais, or 3.3 percent, to 51.66 reais in Sao Paulo trading. Yesterday the company surpassed both Microsoft Corp. and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., to become the world's sixth-largest company by market value. It also became the third-largest company in the Americas after Exxon Mobil Corp. and General Electric Co.
