General Electric's Oil & Gas division has announced a 850 million deal of dollars for the supply to Eni and some of its partners of technologies destined for the Offshore Cape Three Points field, off the coast of Ghana. The agreement provides for the supply of both subsea and turbomachinery solutions, the latter being designed and manufactured largely at the GE Oil & Gas sites in Massa and Florence.
In particular, in the turbomachinery field, GE Oil & Gas will supply three LM2500+G4 gas turbines for power generation and four electric motor-driven gas compression trains, which will be installed on a floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) platform. The dedicated work team is divided between Italy and France and makes use of the Tuscan engineering and manufacturing skills of the GE staff in Florence and Massa and of the colleagues from beyond the Alps at Le Creusot.
The subsea solutions, on the other hand, will be created by a consortium made up of GE Oil & Gas and Oceaneering International, a key player in theoffshore oil & gas, and will include the Subsea Production and Control System (SPS) as well as project management, transportation and testing of the systems manufactured at GE Oil & Gas's Aberdeen facility in Scotland.
The first phase of delivery of the machinery will take place by the last quarter of 2015, while the entry into production of the site is expected by 2017.
“The order reflects the full range of GE's expertise and is a concrete example of the so-called “GE Store,” he commented Lorenzo Simonelli, President and CEO of GE Oil & Gas. “It demonstrates the value of our expertise and the fields of application of our technology, which goes beyond the concept of separate business units and takes advantage of direct access to the various businesses of the General Electric world, to provide customers with innovative and competitive solutions. In addition, it testifies to our commitment to building dedicated local partnerships and developing skills capable of providing the most effective and efficient solutions for our customers, thus also supporting the future growth of different countries, such as Ghana in this case".
Indeed, as part of the agreement, GE Oil & Gas undertakes to develop a long-term relationship within the African region: a joint venture with a Ghanaian company to provide asset management services for the Offshore Cape Three Points development. In addition, GE Oil & Gas will fund the development of a joint training program with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and Ashesi University. These investments will lead to a 65% increase in GE employees in Ghana and will support the training and development of oil & gas professionals for the next few years.
In the Florence and Massa plants, between engineering and production activities, the project will require the employment of about 20 people for one year (between direct and indirect employment).
The order represents a new milestone in the path of excellence undertaken by GE Oil & Gas, and in particular by the division Turbomachinery Solutions, which has its global headquarters in Florence: thanks to the contract announced today, GE Oil & Gas further broadens its horizons and is preparing to penetrate and preside over emerging markets with substantial development prospects, such as Ghana.
In 2014, the Oil & Gas division was one of the most dynamic divisions of the entire General Electric with worldwide orders for 19,7 billion dollars and 45.000 employees worldwide, of which 5.700 in Italy (in the sites of Florence, Talamona-Sondrio, Massa, Bari, Vibo Valentia and Casavatore-Naples).
In mid-afternoon, Eni lost more than 2% in Piazza Affari, with the stock still valid 15,26 euro.
