Discoveries in pre-salt attract equipment producers
Valor Econômico
The discoveries of oil in Brazil, mainly in the pre-salt layer of the Santos basin, have already started attracting small- and medium-sized foreign companies to the country. That is the case of French Ixsea, which produces gyroscope systems with movement sensors to help the stabilization of ships, which will be set up in Santa Catarina. "The idea is to increase the sales by 40% in 2010", says the director of the company in the country, Paulo Alcarpe. The company currently sells nearly US$ 1 million a year in the country. Ixsea already has a commercial office in Brazil and it is now getting ready to render technical assistance and maintenance to its clients, most of them suppliers of Petrobras, or to the very State-Owned company. Among its clients are Fugro, Acergy, Pride and Chemtec. Alcarpe explains his estimate takes in account delays and postponements of some of Petrobras projects that were left for 2010.
Imeca, of the Perrotin group, is another French company eager with the business possibilities around here. According to its CEO, Thierry Renault, the company studies manufacturing, here, pieces of equipment like derricks and other devices used to lay flexible pipes offshore. They are huge pieces of equipment, of up to 1,500 tons, that is the case of a derrick to be delivered in Brazil within two months, explains the technical director, Kara Konate. Five years ago, Imeca started supplying these pieces of equipment to the also French Technip, a manufacturer of flexible pipes that won the bidding contract for the long-term test of the Tupi field, of Petrobrás. Renault assesses € 2 million in investments will be made, with possible partners, in order to get installed in the country until 2011.
The officers are in the country to take part in the 5th edition of the Brasil Offshore, opened yesterday in Macaé, in the north of the state of Rio de Janeiro. Most of the French companies that participate in the fair manufacture equipment that is currently imported by suppliers of Petrobras and now start planning the beginning of the assembly of products in the country.