Rolls-Royce to Provide Petrobras with Compressors for Gasene Pipeline

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery Incorporated, Petrobras' main contractor for the supply of turbo-compressor packages for the completion of Petrobras Gasene pipeline, has subcontracted Rolls-Royce for the provision of 11 natural gas compressors for $10 million. The 28-inch Gasene natural gas pipeline system is made up of three stretches: the Cabiunas-Vitoria (Gascav) leg, the Cacimbas-Vitoria leg and the Cacimbas-Catu leg. The entire line will be 1,400 kilometers long and will transport more than 20 million cubic meters of gas per day. It is an important project not only because it will connect the existing southeastern gas system to one in the northeastern region of the country but also because it will transport gas produced offshore in the Espirito Santos Basin where Petrobras is heavily investing in oil and gas exploration and production.

Rolls-Royce will provide 11 RF3BB-20 centrifugal gas compressors that will be located in the three compression stations along the system, and they will be driven by Siemens SGT-200 gas turbines. The Rolls-Royce gas compressors will be manufactured at the company's Ohio facility and then delivered to the Siemens assembly plant in Houston, Texas. Once completed, they will be taken to the compressor stations in the pipeline system by mid-2008. The construction start-up of the third section of the Gasene pipeline is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2008, and it is planned to be completed by December 2009.

In December 2007, financing and construction contracts were signed. Brazil's official development bank, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Socila (BNDES), agreed to finance the completion of the pipeline by granting $2.55 billion. Petrobras hired China's state-owned hydrocarbons company Sinopec, which is already in charge of the construction of the Cabinuas-Vitoria stretch, to execute the work on the third section of the Gasene pipeline. For more details, see related January 7, 2008, article - Petrobras Granted $2.55 Billion to Construct Third Section of Gasene Natural Gas Pipeline. Petrobras aims to consolidate the Natural Gas Transport Basic Network, a set of interconnected pipelines that will favor the market's expansion by connecting from Porto Alegre to Fortaleza and from Sao Paulo to Bolivia.

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