The new Subsea 7 pipeline manufacturing facility and spoolbase will mainly serve the deepwater pre-salt developments at the Santos Basin.
Subsea 7 has been active in Brazil for 15 years and has its main offices in workshop in Niteroi, in the state Rio de Janeiro and a spoolbase close to the city of Ubu in the state of Espirito Santo.
Although construction of the new plant and spoolbase hasn´t started yet, Subsea 7 is only waiting for a state environmental license to begin building what is to be named the Paraná Subsea Construction Park. The company will invest $100 million and expects to create 600 direct jobs at the new site.
Subsea 7 earned $2,4 billion worldwide and $848 million in Brazil in 2009. The company´s main client in Brazil is Petrobras and they have been around for so long, that about 70% of the oil extracted in Brazil actually goes through Subsea 7 pipes.
Subsea 7 has been discreet about its investments in the coast of Paraná but their plans for the region are not new, as they own as area of 2,6 thousand hectares in Pontal, at the entrance to Paranguá Bay, the bay has for many decades been the home of the Paranaguá Port, one of the main ports in Brazil. Subsea 7 claims they plan to use only 3% of the land and preserve the rest.
Construction of the new plant and spoolbase is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2010 and the plant should be operational by late 2011. As the state of Paraná is strategically located facing the southern portion of the Santos Basin, there is no doubt that the main recipient of these pipes will be the pre-salt areas which are beginning to be developed.
This new pipeline construction plant will be very similar to the one Subsea 7 has at the Ubu Spoolbase located in Espirito Santo, which lies within the Samarco Iron Ore processing plant area, one hour´s flight north of Rio de Janeiro. The base runs 2,225m (including spooling line to vessel), covers an area of 88,000m2 and is designed to service deepwater market. The facilities at Ubu include:
• Quay area dimensions 4.4km
• 980m long pipe stalk rack
• Single joint fabrication
• Firing line 1 - 15 work stations
• Firing line 2 - 17 work stations
With the new plant and spoolbase, Subsea 7, will double its pipeline manufacturing capacity in Brazil. There is no doubt that this has been a well planned company expansion in Brazil, which will also necessarily include the building of new pipe laying and multipurpose vessels in order to meet the demands for shallow and deepwater pipelines, along with an expected increase in demand for Subsea 7´s ROV support services for E&P in the Santos Basin plays.
Claudio Paschoa
Photo courtesy of Subsea 7