In the mid-1970s, Petrobras built numerous fixed underwater platforms (jackets) for installation in shallow waters off the coast of Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe. At that time, only Bahian companies manufactured such jackets. They were Damulakis, Prontoferro and MHM, in addition to A. Araújo in Sergipe.
MHM was a boiler shop located in the Aratú Industrial Center with an offshore construction site, which initially operated at the Usiba Terminal, on Paripe beach, and then at Ponta do Criminoso, within the Aratú Naval Base, in Aratú Bay. . MHM, which later changed its name to Petroalcool, was the pioneer in Brazil, together with Confab, Ishikawajima and Badoni, in the construction of nodes and components for the large fixed platforms of Garoupa, Enchova and Namorado in the Campos Basin.
MHM built jackets for the Ubarana (RN) and Camorin (SE) fields. In consortium with Odebrecht (Prontoferro), it built the largest shallow water jacket in the country at the time, Curimã (CE).
In the late 1970s, MHM was called upon by Petrobras to build modules for the platforms at Cherne I and Cherne II, and later at Pampo. It was a period of effervescence in the Brazilian offshore market. Simultaneously, nine construction sites received major contracts for the construction of modules, in addition to platforms. MHM invited Ultratec to join a 50% - 50% consortium for these constructions.
Well-known people in the oil and gas market were engineers at MHM at the time, such as Fernando Barbosa and Carlos Nascimento, now at Odebrecht, César Oliveira, Antonio Arruti and Hélio Benjamin from Geral Damulakis. Gary Munoz, current service manager at Fluxo, was the construction manager for the Pampo modules, while Hideo Hama, today our president, was the founder and director of MHM.