Pre-salt layer creates new gold rush
O Estado de S. Paulo
When the first subsea equipment for the Tupi pilot project leaves the Aker Solutions unit in Curitiba, in June, the feeling of having fulfilled its duty will not be restricted to the capital of the State of Paraná. In Piracicaba, 570 kilometers away, the employees of NG Metalurgia will also be able to celebrate the delivery of the first metal structure for a piece of equipment intended for the pre-salt layer. A similar situation will be experienced by the employees of Flanel, headquartered in Osasco, in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo, which has also be subcontracted for the project.
The manufacturing of the piece of equipment, called wet Christmas tree, has mobilized nearly 10 companies spread through the Country, a reflex of the diversity of businesses caused by the growth of the domestic production of oil. With the perspectives created by the pre-salt layer, this movement tends to intensify, attracting the interest of manufacturers of equipment from all over the world. With the national content requirement, the race for the increase or setting up of new companies in the Country has already started.
Optimism is in the mood of the discussions with executives of the sector. "The oil industry is the only one that keeps the rhythm of investments", says the sales manager of NG Metalurgia, Rogério Fanini. The company has invested R$ 30 million (US$ 16.7 million) in the past years in the increase of the capacity and it expects an annual growth between 10% and 15% in the sales to the sector, which currently represents one third of the R$ 400 million (US$ 222.2 million) it earns a year.
"We will double the sales to the sector", bets the President of Flanel, Carlos Seiscentos, confident in the project of development of a new steel production technology that consumed R$ 10 million (US$ 5.6 million) in investments and is already being evaluated by Petrobras. Supplier of tubes and other forged products to the sector, the company sees in the special steel a gap to be filled, especially after the burst of a screw led the State-owned Company to suspend the production test of Tupi last year. With the new steel, more resistant to high pressures, Flanel expects to gain the market of screws for submarine systems.
According to market estimates, there are currently nearly four thousand companies included in the list of suppliers of Petrobrás. Only in the register of the National Organization of the Oil Industry (Onip), which aims at opening the way to the private oil companies, they are nearly 1.8 thousand. "The Onip has been so ostensibly sought by companies from several countries interested in getting installed in Brazil or in partnerships with national companies", says the Superintendent of the entity, Alfredo Renault, mentioning parties from Korea, Spain, France and Norway, for instance. "They don't come here merely seeking a market to export their products to, they want to know how to assure their presence in the Country".