OREANDA-NEWS. September 20, 2012. GE Oil & Gas (NYSE: GE) and Brazilian energy company Petrobras have signed the world's largest subsea wellhead production contract, worth nearly USD 1.1 billion. This includes the delivery of approximately 380 subsea wellhead systems and installation tools needed in oil well exploration, and more than 75 percent of the parts will be made in Brazil.

GE announced the award of the contract at the 2012 Rio Oil & Gas being held September 17-20 in Rio de Janeiro.

"This new agreement between two of the world's largest companies shows our commitment to collaborate in the development of the oil and gas sector in Brazil,” said Joгo Geraldo Ferreira, president and CEO of GE Oil & Gas for Latin America. “In recent years our investments and efforts have been focused on preparing our company to support market growth and to be ready for contracts of this size, developing the entire supply chain. We want to grow with the country."

“The new contract builds on our existing relationship with Petrobras and follows previous successful projects,” said Rod Christie, vice president of GE Oil & Gas Subsea Systems. In 2009, GE Oil & Gas and Petrobras signed what was then the biggest wellhead contract in history to date (in terms of number of wellheads), worth USD 250 million.

“Through the acquisition of VetcoGray in 2007 and Wellstream in 2011 and ongoing investments in technology, GE has become an established player in the offshore industry,” said Christie. “With more than 5,000 subsea employees operating in more than 50 countries we are supporting some of the industry’s largest and most challenging projects.”

Petrobras plans to install the subsea wellhead systems in various oil and gas fields in Brazil, including sub-salt. The equipment will be produced at the GE plant in Jandira (Sгo Paulo), where GE has invested USD 30 million to expand production capacity.

"The Jandira facility has been crucial in allowing GE Oil & Gas to provide world-class technology and has prioritized Brazilian-based production, which is a critical component in local social and economic growth," said Fernando Martins, president of Subsea Systems for GE in Latin America. In the last 30 years, more than 1,200 GE wellhead systems and 180 subsea Christmas trees have been produced and installed in Brazil.

Petrobras is an integrated energy company that operates in 27 countries on five continents. It is a world leader in deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil production and operates approximately 100 production platforms, 15 refineries, 30,000 kilometers of pipelines and more than 6,000 service stations.

GE Growth in Brazil

GE Oil & Gas is committed to business growth in Brazil and continues to invest in new capacity to take on orders and new industry demands. The USD 30 million invested in Jandira (SP) was used for capacity expansion and modernization of the operation. In Niteroi (Rio de Janeiro), GE is investing USD 200 million to expand its flexible line plant, to serve the new sub-salt fields.

In June 2012, GE announced the completion of the USD 32 million expansion of its plant in Macae (Rio de Janeiro), tripling the size of the facility and making it GE Oil & Gas' most modern subsea system services provider in the world. This expansion increased the workforce at the site by 150 percent.