Swire Oilfield Services, the world’s largest supplier of specialist offshore cargo carrying units to the global energy industry and leading specialist in helicopter fuel systems and chemical handling services, with more than 45,000 units around the world, has landed in Brazil this March with its eye on the pre-salt market.
Strategically located in the main oil and gas production markets, Swire Oilfield Services plans on participating in the growing South American market, due to the discovery of the pre-salt layers.
The pre-salt will create new business opportunities in the supply chain segment, such as supplying containers, baskets and offshore tanks for transporting chemical products. This service is paramount to the perfect functioning of the supply chain in the industry. Since Brazil plans on adopting strict norms and procedures for health, environment, and safety (HES) policy, the strategy of Swire Oilfield Services is precisely to offer units certified by Norma DNV 2.7-1, globally recognised as offering total integrity in transport equipment and complete safety for their operators.
“Exploration in the pre-salt will require even more effort from the supply chain segment, including the supply of containers, baskets and offshore tanks constructed within much stricter norms, which is an advantage Swire Oilfield Services already possesses. These norms are already used in all oil producing nations, except in Latin America, which has been more flexible, and therefore, the local units have been less robust and demand more maintenance,” explains Marcelo Nacif, business development of Swire Brazil.
The group plans on manufacturing equipment in Brazil in compliance with national rules regarding local content. The goal is to produce 6,000 offshore container units by 2015. Swire Oilfield Services is mostly present in Northern Europe, where it operates eight established bases, four of which are in the UK and Norway, with partners in Denmark and the Netherlands.
The company also has operations in Australia, Nigeria, Angola, Russia, the US as well as Trinidad and Tobago.