Spat Delays Dismantling of FPSO in Brazil

A dispute between state-run oil company Petrobras and steelmaker Gerdau will delay the first dismantling of an oil production vessel in Brazil by at least a year, people familiar with the matter said, in a setback for local shipyards.

The operation had been hailed as a chance to reinvent Brazil's struggling shipbuilders as industrial recyclers, generating jobs as Petrobras plans to spend $9.9 billion in the next five years to retire another 10 ships of the same kind.

The 45,000 ton FPSO, called P-32, was set to wrap up its decommissioning by December 2024 under a new Petrobras sustainability program.

Instead, the work began only last month, according to the head of a local metalworker's union in Rio Grande do Sul state Benito de Oliveira Goncalves. He said a dispute between Petrobras and Gerdau over removing petroleum residues from the vessel had stalled work for more than a year.

Another person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named, said the ship arrived in the yard with 30 million liters of oily water and 270,000 liters of marine diesel on board, without a consensus on how to pay for its removal.

The marine diesel has been pumped out and