OREANDA-NEWS. February 03, 2016. Today, in the presence of the Italian Minister of Economic Development Federica Guidi and Chairman and CEO of GE Jeff Immelt, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between SACE, the Italian export credit company, and GE Oil & Gas to support exports of the leading provider of technologies and services in the oil and gas industry.

The MoU provides that SACE will support exports of GE Oil & Gas in an amount estimated to reach \\$6 billion for the years 2016-2018 in several markets, with focus on Latin America, North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa, Middle East and Asia.

The cooperation will allow GE Oil & Gas to provide customers with competitive SACE-backed financing to buy its products and services, allowing it to seize new global opportunities and satisfy international demand.

SACE will also provide financial support for the sale of products in the gas turbine family NovaLT, 100% made in Italy turbines recently introduced by GE Oil & Gas. In order to develop and produce new-generation gas turbines and centrifugal compressors, GE Oil & Gas also announced today a 5-year investment plan worth \\$600 million.

Within this collaboration, SACE and GE Oil & Gas will work together to support the development of innovative solutions, with the aim of continuously improving service efficiency and satisfaction of international customers.

"At GE Oil & Gas we say that “we fuel the future” and having an institutional partner such as SACE means just that: boost energy and invest in the future" said Lorenzo Simonelli, President and CEO of GE Oil & Gas. "Today's signing supports the strategy to increase exports and to help support growth in emerging markets. This goes beyond the scope of this announcement, in helping to support the people and communities of these impacted countries. The MoU strengthens the presence and leadership of GE Oil & Gas in Italy, the country where our skills were born. It also demonstrates our commitment to provide customers and partners innovative solutions."

“We are proud to renew today our support for the path of growth and innovation of GE Oil & Gas, a company which has been able to enhance and capitalise on Italian competences and know-how to establish itself as an international centre of excellence,” said Alessandro Castellano, CEO of SACE. “We are committed to boost new export opportunities in high potential markets, with positive impacts on the significant production processes and jobs generated in Italy by GE Oil & Gas and their partner SMEs.”

This MoU represents a new milestone in the path of excellence undertaken by GE Oil & Gas. With this partnership, the company not only expands its horizons and prepares itself to grow in emerging markets with strong growth prospects, but also partners with SACE to support the development of local suppliers and enhanced skills training.

GE Oil & Gas - Nuovo Pignone has approximately 5,400 employees in five sites in Italy. In 2015 it has invested more than \\$170 million in research and development and in its plants, and \\$8 million in employee training.

In 2015, GE Oil & Gas in Italy supported more than 1,300 partners, mainly SMEs, at a total amount of around €1 billion.