Speakers at the NCE Subsea Breakfast Seminar during Rio Oil & Gas 2014. From the left: Owe Hagesæther – NCE Subsea, Adhemar Freire – INTSOK, Cristina Pinho – Petrobras, Marcelo Vertis – Rio de Janeiro State, Kartrine Trovik – DNB, Arne-Christian Haukeland – DNB.Brazilian market developments and the export opportunities for Norwegian companies operating in the oil, gas and maritime markets were discussed in a breakfast seminar hosted by NCE Subsea 18 September 2014.
Invited speakers from Petrobras, Aker Solutions, DNB, INTSOK and the state government of Rio de Janeiro participated in the discussions on the largest subsea market in the world.
According to Cristina Pinho, Executive Manager of E&P Services in Petrobras, there is a huge demand for subsea equipment in Brazil, and this demand will only increase.
“Petrobras is a leading buyer of flexible pipes, and in 2014 we will have installed the largest industry park for flexible pipes in the world. We are currently working closely with the industry to develop this technology to be used on the pre-salt fields. Petrobras is also a leading buyer of subsea christmas trees, alone responsible for 19 percent of the global demand”, she said.
Petrobras is already producing 480.000 barrels per day from pre-salt areas on the Brazilian continental shelf, and have had 100 percent success in the exploratory wells drilled the last year.
Mrs. Pinho also talked about other technical challenges for pre-salt, and listed flexible risers for water depth down to 2200 meter, flow assurance and scaling control as the main challenges. Petrobras has already implemented the use of alternative riser systems on pre-salt, and the deepest lazy way risers in the world will be installed on the FPSO CIdade de Ilhabela on the Sapinhoa field in the Santos Basin.
Oil water separation, raw water injection and subsea multiphase pumps are other critical technologies that Mrs. Pinho listed.
Cristina Pinho, Petrobras.“There are also challenges in subsea inspection and maintenance. We need a new generation cleaning tools, we we need to move towards the use of robots and remote monitoring, and look into life extension of subsea systems. There are opportunities here for both established companies and newcomers in the Brazilian market, and Petrobras is looking to establish long-term businesses with its suppliers”, she said.
Numbers from World Energy Outlook show that 90 billion USD will be invested in the oil, gas and energy supply in Brazil annually from 2013-2035. Half of all the future deepwater activities in the world will be developed in Brazil, and by 2020, Brazil will have 44 percent of the subsea christmas greens and 26 percent of the FPSOs in the world. A majority of the pre-salt blocks are located in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
“This is why we are working to create a subsea cluster in Rio de Janeiro. We expect big investments in the sector and there is a big room for companies in the supply chain for subsea segment. Together with Petrobras, we have identified several focus areas, and we have a comprehensive list of technical gaps, services and products that we are going to need. Forges alloys, coatings, bolts, subsea valves are only a few examples”, Mr. Vertis said.
One of every five deepwater subsea tree in Brazil today is produced by Aker Solutions, a world leading provider of oilfield products, systems and services, with 40 years experience in Brazil. Fabio Pereira, the Vice President of business development of Aker Solutions, outlined the opportunities he sees in the subsea market in Brazil, and stressed how it is vital for Aker Solutions that the supply chain keeps up with the future demands.
“We expect a big demand for christmas trees, and Brazil will need a major part of the global supply of such products. We are investing in a new production facility in Curitiba that will double our capacity and enable us to make six christmas trees a month”, he said
Owe Hagesæther, CEO of NCE Subsea introduced NCE Subsea, its members and the cluster’s activities in Brazil.
“Brazil is the most important subsea market in the world, and due to the size of the market, we are working to expand our activites here”, he said.
Source: NCE Subsea
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