OceanPact has taken an important step in expanding its presence in Brazil’s Northeast region by opening a new operating base in São Luís, Maranhão. The launch took place in May, reinforcing the company’s environmental incident response capacity in a strategic location for the port and offshore sectors.

Having a base in São Luís has been a long-standing demand of local clients, according to Jorge Elias, OceanPact’s port operations manager. “With this base now in place, we are demonstrating our ability to operate locally with excellence,” he says.

The new base occupies a strategic site within the Port of Itaqui, with easy access to the sea, bolstering our operational infrastructure in the region, where we already have 19 employees. We expect our local headcount to exceed 40 in the coming weeks, as we mobilize new equipment and operational resources.

“We have been operating in São Luís since 2015. We have now expanded our inventory of emergency response equipment and consequently our response capacity in northeastern Brazil,” says Amanda Duque, commercial coordinator.

As well as meeting local demands, the new base positions the company favorably for future operations in a region with considerable growth potential.

“Being in São Luís gives us a competitive advantage to meet new demands in northern Brazil and in the Equatorial Margin oil exploration region,” says Jorge Elias.

OceanPact now has 20 operating units in Brazil, including bases and support points, spread across eight Brazilian states. Eight are in the country’s Southeast region, 11 in the Northeast and one in the South.