Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - ge

During the recent Rio O&G 2014 Expo and Conference a range of new products for the O&G industry were launched. The size of the event, with over 1,000 companies present and tens of thousands of daily visitors made it a great medium for showing new products to the market. GE had its large booth constantly full and was probably the company, which had the largest number of new products on display. Naxys joined GE in September 2012 as a world-class sensors developer for the subsea sector. With its headquarter in Bergen, Norway, Naxys develops and supplies leak detection and condition monitoring sensors based on proprietary, passive acoustic hydrophone technology.

The increase in exploratory O&G programs around the world and specifically the deepwater exploration programs being undertaken at the GOM, in West Africa and Brazil has caused major improvements and new technologies and materials to be employed in subsea equipment, such as BOPs, wellhead systems, risers, manifolds, flowlines, drilling fluids among others. GE´s VetcoGray has developed an interesting seal technology for its subsea wellheads. Named MS seal, it is based on Metal-to-metal sealing technology. All VetcoGray subsea wellheads use metal-to-metal sealing technology, which is superior to elastomer options because it prevents inevitable heat and corrosive fluids from damaging seal integrity. Both the wellhead and hanger have a sealing area of parallel wickers.

Present in Brazil for over 90 years, GE is preparing to invest $500 million in Brazil along the next 3 years and maintain its investments in local training and research. GE O&G mayl be one of the main recipients of this local investment as it is a market with great growth potential and where GE already has a very strong presence. Very recently Petrobras and General Electric (GE) signed an agreement for future technology cooperation in R&D projects for monitoring and controlling oil and gas production systems. The development of subsea and compact systems for O&GQ production, and remote monitoring of equipment are among the purposes of this agreement, which highlights the importance GE has had in the development of Brazil´s oil industry.

GE O&G has been awarded a contract valued at $160 million to supply gas turbine and compressor equipment by Petrobras Neatherlands BV (PNBV).The equipment will be deployed on two FPSOs (P-58 and P-62) for E&P in oil fields located in Brazilian offshore plays. This important $160 million contract is related to power generation and compressor equipment packages to be deployed on two Petrobras FPSO units slated to work the north side of the Parque das Baleias (Whale Park) O&G fields and at the Roncador field at the Campos Basin. These combined will support production of 360,000 barrels of oil per day. The FPSOs are scheduled to go online in 2013.