Brazil's coastal market faces shortage of crew

Vessels operating off the coast of Brazil are suffering from lack of skilled employees, leading to a number of unpleasant surprises for the oil and fellow operators, who hoped to capitalize on the vast oil reserves of the country.

Each year, approximately 500 employees are trained in Brazil, but the number is not sufficient to meet market demand or the Brazilian coastal human element required to support the operations of the coastal vessels.

According to the vice president of Group OSM, Jan Morten Eskilt, personnel costs surprise firms coming into the country: "As a company manager, see the owners move to Brazil and are forgetting that in a market featuring craft home. They are surprised with the operating costs and, even more, with personnel costs. At this point, many companies have had trouble, "he emphasized.

With operating costs remain uncertain, and most contracts are long-term charter agreed only with price increases based on inflation, average daily gains may remain below the operational costs which, consequently, would lead the owners to have difficulty paying capital costs.

Looking at the growth of offshore business in Brazil and number of employees needed to serve the industry, the year 2011 already has a deficit of 288 professionals - a number expected to grow to at least 1,339 employees in 2014, must not leave the shortage in 2020.

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