GE Oil & Gas today announced the startup of turbomachinery packaging and testing activities in Brazil that will increase the amount of locally produced equipment used for onshore and offshore projects in Brazil. The new facility is located in the northeastern port city of Recife.
“This investment demonstrates our ongoing success in increasing Brazil’s local manufacturing capacity. We are committed to developing technology here,” said Joao Geraldo Ferreira , CEO for Latin America—GE Oil & Gas.
The startup will lead to the creation of more than 100 new jobs through GE and its partners, including Navalmare and other local suppliers. The packaging and testing activities will take place in a 600,000 square-foot facility and initially will focus on fulfilling a previously announced US$500 million contract with Brazil’s national oil company Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras). The contract calls for GE to provide the main turbomachinery, such as gas turbine generators sets, gas turbine compressors sets and moto-compressors sets, for four new floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units. Petrobras is building the four FPSOs (P-74, P-75, P-76 and P-77) for use in the Cessão Onerosa region of the Santos Basin pre-salt fields in the state of São Paulo.
The contract also is leveraging technology from other GE businesses including GE Power & Water and GE Power Conversion, which is providing motors, generators and power control systems, all of which also are made in Brazil. The new operation in Recife is designed to serve other projects in the future as Brazil assumes an increasingly strategic position in the oil and gas market.
GE has had a presence in Brazil since 1919 and today employs more than 8,500 people in the country. The company has operations throughout Brazil, including in Bahia, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. The local team leverages GE’s global expertise of engineers, field service technicians and logistics excellence to ensure the highest quality and strongest execution is on point for customers in Brazil.
To date, GE Oil & Gas has invested US$282 million in Brazil with six facilities and more than 2,000 employees.
[mappress] Press Release, November 01, 2013