Brazil has launched the first of ten locally built oil tankers that will be used for the country’s crude trading.

The $120m Jaoa Candido is one of 49 vessels being built under a national development programme and is capable of transporting a million barrels of crude.

The transport capacity of the vessel represents around half the daily output of state-run oil company Petrobras.

Brazilian exports of crude oil stand at 14 billion barrels but are expected increase threefold with recent offshore field developments.

In 2009 Brazil reported a daily oil output of 2.5 million barrels.