June 7 – The Rio Grande Shipyard, owned by Ecovix, completed this week the decommissioning of the P-32 platform in its dry dock. The first green dismantling in Brazil was concluded, involving hundreds of workers who worked on the maritime unit, which weighed more than 44,000 tons.
Acquired at auction by Gerdau in July 2023, the P-32 was the first unit in Petrobras’ production system to follow the state-owned company’s new sustainable platform decommissioning model. The largest Brazilian steel producer contracted Ecovix to dismantle the vessel’s structures, which occupied a large part of the dry dock.
“It was a gigantic operation, entirely planned and executed by Ecovix’s own workforce. This milestone proves, above all, the excellence and capacity of our national engineering to deliver sustainable and safe solutions for the biggest challenges in heavy industry,” says Robson Passos, CEO of Ecovix. He adds that the complexity of the work was evident from the platform’s arrival at the shipyard, involved more than 50 professionals and two months of preparation.
More than 90% of the platform’s structure will be reused as scrap metal. The remaining blocks of the P-32 are being cut to be loaded onto trucks destined for the Gerdau unit in Charqueadas (RS), where the scrap will be used as raw material for steel production.
“For Gerdau, one of the largest metal scrap recyclers in Latin America, participating in this pioneering initiative in Brazilian industry contributes to the company remaining a benchmark in the production of low-carbon steel. One of the sources of scrap generation is the dismantling of platforms like the P-32 and ships, which allows a significant volume of these materials to be removed from Brazilian waters and transformed into new steel products, since steel is an infinitely and 100% recyclable item,” says Marco Camin, director of raw materials at Gerdau.
Other materials were sent for safe and proper disposal, and the work also generated social benefits. A complete kitchen was donated to a school in Rio Grande that serves children in vulnerable situations; the mattresses used by the P-32 professionals were destined for an organization supporting women in the municipality. Other items, such as life jackets, were distributed during the floods in Rio Grande do Sul in 2024.
With the completion of work on the P-32, the dry dock at the Rio Grande Shipyard is cleared for the arrival of the P-33, scheduled for July. The platform, which was used in the Marlim Field, in the Campos Basin, is approximately 337m long, 54.5m wide and weighs about 45,000 tons.
Currently at the Port of Açu, in Rio de Janeiro, the platform was also acquired by Gerdau and will undergo the same dismantling process in Rio Grande, with the use of scrap metal for steel production and proper disposal of other waste.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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