Libra, a giant oil field located in Brazil’s presalt area, will boost many business opportunities over the next years. According to Petrobras, the field operator, Libra is expected to have for its first production development project investments of about $5.5 billion, of which $2 billion will be used for drilling, evaluation and completion of wells, $1.5 billion with production collection system and $2 billion with the platform.

Libra field was awarded by five-company consortium, including Brazil’s Petrobras (operator, 40% stake), UK’s Shell (20%), France’s Total (20%), and China’s CNPC (10%) and Cnooc (10%) in 2013. The field is expected to have 8 to 12 billion of barrels of recoverable oil.

In this context, many subsea manufacturing companies are eyeing those business chances for subsea equipment supplying. This is the case of ABB, a Swiss-based automation company, who recently announced that is increasing investments in Brazil to take advantage the opportunities in the pre-salt field. “We are investing in Brazil in order to strengthen our position in the country’s [oil and gas] segment. We want to be prepared to meet this growing demand that is coming over the next years,” says ABB Oil and Gas Automation Department in Brazil Manager Maurício Cunha.

In fact, Cunha reveals that this company’s intentions in expanding investments in Brazil started in 2011, when oil prices reached US$ 117. In 2014, ABB opened a facility for a manufacturing of engines, generators, drive systems and plugs. In Feb. 2017, ABB invested $ 3.5 million to conclude a facility for the manufacturing of a facility for the manufacturing of electric circuit breaker.

‘’ABB has portfolio to support operational efficiency goals in the pre-salt. Several products and solutions can be implemented in the Libra field project. Equipment such as Condition Monitoring, rotation monitoring solution; wireless instrument solution and Subsea CO2 removal solutions, which increase FPSO’s storage capacity in order to increase the efficiency of oil fields,” the manager says. In addition, he points out that the Condition monitoring system can help company to have an accurate decision-making based on scenario analysis.

ABB’s headquarter in Brazil is situated in the state of São Paulo. The center has a remote and collaborative monitoring system integrated with the company's excellence center in Oslo, Norway. “This excellence center is connected to automation and electric system installed in oil platforms. This system allows an efficient maintenance response, which is good to increase operational efficiency gains and give more profitably for oil companies.”

Even though the oil industry still faces problems caused by the drop in oil prices, ABB director says that the company has increased its focus in equipment supply and maintenance services in Brazil. “Offshore projects are long-term investments so decisions must be taken today in order to keep our projects meet our future demands. We are very optimistic about the opportunities that will be created in the upcoming oil auctions. We want to participate and supply equipment to oil platforms, such as automation and electric equipment to the very promising Libra field, in Santos basin.”

Although Brazil’s government eased the local content rule, brewing controversy among the industry, Cunha said that the company maintains its investments plan in the country to meet former local content requirements. However, the director says that the company is able to meet Brazil’s demand for the Oil and Gas activities through other facilities located in other parts of the world, such as Singapore, Norway and Houston. ‘’Indeed, local equipment and services will be necessary since the handover to support oil platforms during their life cycle. ”

Cunha also said that ABB is focusing on OPEX investments in Brazil. “We are renewing some maintenance contracts as well as signing new contracts with clients that want to cut operational costs.”

New office in Rio de Janeiro

As part of 2017 ABB’s investment plan, the company opened its fifth regional office in Brazil in May. The new office, located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, was chosen in order to provide better logistics and more efficiency to meet its customers in the Oil and Gas segment.

The new office will be only 15 minutes away from Petrobras’ headquarters, enabling ABB to storage products, offer training and technical courses, carry out emergent support and equipment tests.

“We want to be closer to our customers in order to meet their demands in a better way and with more efficiency. The new office is remarkable for the company and establishes Rio as a strategic market for ABB,” says ABB Brazil Oil and Gas manager Mauricio Cunha.

“The major oil and gas companies are located in Rio de Janeiro. Therefore, the office will be situated in a strategic area, where meetings will be easier, more dynamic and able to give faster responses to our customers’, says the manager.

ABB’s Training Center in Rio will offer solutions and technology training for Maritime, Oil &Gas and Petrochemical segments. They will be destined to operators, supervisors and electric maintenance professionals. The training center will also offer courses on automation systems, energy distribution and low and medium tension panels.

—Brunno Braga