Feature 1 | SPANISH MARINE INDUSTRIES Barreras adapts to high oil prices
Spain’s leading private shipyard has carved a lucrative niche out of rising oil prices and the need to locate subsea pockets of fossil fuels to meet consumer demand.
seismic vessels that incorporate cutting edge design features developed by the yard’s in-house team in cooperation with foreign companies. Earlier this year Barreras delivered the
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first of four vessels to Norwegian company WesternGeco, part of a €500million contract scheduled for completion by next year. Te ships developed and built at the yard
will be used to search for small reserves of oil and gas in locations around the world. The WG Columbus is the product of
a technical project carried out in close cooperation between the yard, the shipowner and Norwegian specialists Ulstein Design. Te ship is the first vessel ever constructed
in Spain incorporating an inverted bow design. It is equipped with a helipad and has capacity for 169 persons, and will have its operational base in the Gulf of Mexico where it will carry out seismic research in US waters. The complexity and added value of
this project has established Barreras as an important player in the market for
The Passio de Formentera was delivered to Balemia this year. The ship is the second of a series of four.
sophisticated vessels of this type. “A few years ago, when a barrel of oil was
at US$40 or US$50, it wasn’t viable to exploit certain types of undersea oil reserves,” said José Francisco González Viñas, chairman of Barreras. “These days, however, as a result of rising oil prices, we find ourselves in a
Starting commercial operations in June this year the Passio de Formentera has both stern and bow ramps and has a service speed of 20knots.
situation where every oil field that is found is profitable.” According to Mr Gonzalez about 70%
of the orderbook in Galician yards is for offshore vessels, though Barreras itself has another important line of work that it has developed over recent years. About half of the yard’s workload involves
design and construction of ro-pax ships, a market that has grown in recent years thanks largely to EU shortsea policies. “This is a sector that has received an
enormous impulse for operational reasons,” Mr Gonzalez said. “Before, nearly all non-bulk cargo used to
be carried in containers but a lot of it is now in trailers and using ro-ro services.” “In Europe, cargo trade is split 50/50
between containers and ro-ro.” Barreras delivered one of four ro-pax
vessels this year to Spanish owner Balearia, which operates services between the Iberian peninsula and Spain’s island territories. Te Passió de Formentera was built at
a cost of E42million and can carry 800 passengers as well as 304m of linear cargo and 540m for vehicles. NA
40 The Naval Architect November 2009
ijos de J. Barreras, in the Galician province of Pontevedra, is building high-tech offshore
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