GE Oil & Gas and SBM Offshore have agreed to what they are calling the first ever global maintenance agreement for an entire fleet of floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels.
Under the agreement, GE Oil & Gas will provide spare parts, depot overhauls, field services and digital solutions including remote monitoring and diagnostics for the GE aero derivative gas turbines and both GE and non-GE electrical generators, centrifugal compressors and various auxiliary systems currently installed on SBM Offshore’s fleet of FPSOs operating in Sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil. GE said the agreement will also cover future FPSO vessels in construction.
The move was among a number of announcements made during the opening day of GE Oil & Gas' annual meeting, held in Florence, Italy.
The firm also announced GE Oil & Gas today announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that it says will lead to US$600 million investment in research and development over the next five years in Italy, home to its Turbomachinery Solutions division and other areas.
The MoU will a center of global excellence set up in Tuscany for the oil and gas sector involving 500 staff from GE, universities, research labs, and small and medium-sized enterprises. The project aims at increasing Italian production by 50% and increase company revenue by $1.7 billion in five years. With the support of national government and Tuscany Region, it will also train a new generation of engineers specializing in next generation high-tech design and industrialization. This will provide concrete benefits in terms of innovation and productivity both for the world of research and for local entrepreneurial activities.
The program, named Galileo, supports the development of gas turbines and centrifugal compressors with a 5-65MW power range and innovative digital technologies covering their entire life cycle with aim of optimizing the performance and operative life of the products.
Through the GE Store, which is the marketplace that identifies synergies and transfers them across GE’s diverse businesses, GE Oil & Gas will be able to use aeroderivative material technology to introduce increasingly lighter and smaller machines to the oil and gas industry.
The investment in R&D will be supported by the use of new digital technologies for accelerating processes and improving performances, in line with the global GE digital industrial transformation.
GE has been operating in Italy since 1921, and has 12,400 employees working in eight business divisions that are active in various technological sectors that are strategic for national development, from energy to transport and healthcare. With its 25 sites, three R&D centers and its Learning Centre, GE Italy has built an internationally integrated and known tradition that has impacted and helped to write the history of Italian industry.
GE Oil & Gas – Nuovo Pignone has around 5,400 employees working in five production plants at Massa, Florence, Bari, Vibo Valentia and Talamona. In Italy GE Oil & Gas has also a yard for the assembly of large industrial modules in Avenza (Carrara).
Commenting on the agreement with SBM Offshore, GE says: "This partnership is significant for both companies because it represents the first time a maintenance agreement is signed for an entire fleet of FPSOs at a global level which leverages GE Oil & Gas’ proven maintenance expertise while also providing SBM Offshore with its digital capabilities designed to provide customers with improved operational outcomes by leveraging the power of big data, analytics and intelligent operation.".
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