Baker Hughes gets subsea order from Petrobras

Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes has been awarded a subsea oilfield equipment contract from Petrobras as part of the Marlim and Voador field revitalization plan in the Campos Basin, offshore Brazil.

Baker Hughes said on Monday that the contract includes several key technologies from its Subsea Connect portfolio and will provide Petrobras with a connected suite of solutions to help drive efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve execution speed.

The oilfield services provider will supply up to five subsea production and injection manifold systems. These benefit from a lightweight and compact design for installation from smaller vessels and include integrated hydraulic connection systems and retrievable choke modules to realize the life of field cost savings.

The manifold systems will also include Baker Hughes’ field-proven vertical mechanical clamp connection system, which increases installation efficiencies.

In addition to the manifold systems, Baker Hughes will provide 32 modular, structured, subsea control modules – called Modpods – which are powered by the company’s SemStar5 technology, manufactured in the Nailsea facility in Bristol, UK.

“This order is an important example of how Subsea Connect is bringing structured technology to improve execution certainty”, said Neil Saunders, executive vice president of Oilfield Equipment at Baker Hughes.

Adyr Tourinho, vice president of Brazil and Oilfield Equipment for Latin America at Baker Hughes, said: “This contract is a culmination of our multi-year engagement with Petrobras and builds on our history supplying subsea production systems to deepwater projects in Brazil”.

Baker Hughes also said that the contract will include a global team of experts delivering the subsea production and injection manifold systems, subsea control modules, subsea connection systems, and field installation support.

The manifold systems will be fabricated, tested, and assembled in Baker Hughes’ Centre of Excellence facility in Jandira, Brazil.

Petrobras has also recently awarded a subsea contract to TechnipFMC for the supply of manifolds for the Marlim and Voador fields.

Under the contract, TechnipFMC will supply up to eight manifolds for production and injection, utilizing the all-electric Robotic Valve Controller (RVC). The contract also includes associated tools, spares and services.

The Marlim and Voador fields occupy an area of 339.3 square kilometres and are located in deep waters, some 150 kilometres from the northern coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro.

The revitalization project at Marlim and Vorador involves the replacement of all existing platforms with two new FPSOs.

The first oil from the revitalization is estimated for 2023, with a plateau expected by 2025.