A new joint venture being set up in Angola by GE Oil and Gas is to be supported by the firm’s Aberdeen operation.
GE-GLS Oil and Gas Angola sees GE and Angola’s GLS Holding investing an initial £110million in a new manufacturing facility in Zaire to supply subsea equipment offshore Angola.
Sixteen Angolans will come to Aberdeen for training, with more to follow as numbers at the factory – due to open in two years – grow, said GE.
Design and technology will be provided from GE’s subsea systems business in Aberdeen as well as Bristol and Norway.
Flatpacks of equipment will also be shipped out of Aberdeen to Angola.
GE Oil & Gas also announced it had a contract to supply four complete, variable frequency drive high-speed electric motor and centrifugal compressor packages for Total E&P Norge’s new offshore production platform on the Martin Linge oil and gas field.
Production at the Martin Linge field, 150km off the coast of Norway, is scheduled to start in 2016.
GE also said it was in finalising qualification tests of its Blue-C subsea gas compression system, which has so far run for more than 2,300 hours while installed in a test pool.
Blue-C was built for the Ormen Lange subsea compression station project, executed by Aker Subsea for Statoil and Norske Shell.
It is designed for unattended operation at over 2,950 feet below sea level, with power up to 12.5 megawatts.
Installation on the seabed is expected in 2019.