Transpetro has cancelled orders for 17 tankers placed at Brazilian shipyards, according to news reports. The orders were placed under a programme initiated under one of Brazil's previous presidents who is now under investigation for corruption charges.
"We decided to revoke the contracts for those ships," Antonio Silvino, head of Transpetro, said to Reuters regarding the order.
According to Clarksons, Transpetro had ordered two suezmax tankers, five aframax tankers, three long-range-one (LR1) tankers, and eight medium-range tankers.
The ships were being built at the Atlantico Sul Shipyard at Ipojuca and the Estaleiro shipyard in Rio de Janeiro. The ships were being built under a national revitalisation programme started by former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva aimed at reviving the country's moribund shipbuilding industry.
The cancelled orders accounted for more than a third of the 46 ships built under the programme, Reuters says.
Representatives of Transpetro and the shipyards were not immediately available for comment.
