Page 42: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2011)

Petrobras and the Brazilian Navy, we intend to build at least 70% of our products here in Brazil. Therefore we are looking for local companies that have products related to ours and potentiality to build some of our products, so we can begin a partnership and begin a technology transfer process in order to capacitate this local company to build selected products to ECA quality standards.

Since ECA has many different branches it would be impossible to have only one company building all the dif- ferent equipment, therefore we are looking for one or two local companies to be our partner in each of our segments, and once chosen we will train them in France and then begin the technology transfer in order to start manufac- turing. If we send anyone from France to work with these companies it will be mostly during the first stages for supervision during short periods. As our office in Brazil also will supply all of Latin America we are talking about, eventually, having our full range of products to be manu- factured in Brazil.

Which do you consider to be ECAs main products?

Our main products are ship simulators, subsea robots and airplane simulators.

How do you see the market potential for your products in Brazil?

It is very, very good! Brazil is in a full growth mode and is in need of many different products. An example is if Brazil buys Frigates from Italy, they will be using ECA simula- tors to train the Brazilian Naval Officers, so it is more business for us.

Of course the potential of the O&G market is immense for the subsea robots and also for ship simulators for the shipping industry involved in O&G operations.

We really hope to do business with Brazil for a long time.

ECA definitely has short term goals in mind but expects a lot of business in different segments in the long run.

How do you see the business opportunities for ECA in

Latin America?

Actually it is very good, the economic crisis did not affect

Latin America so much, and as we have a wide range of products, there are demands from each country for differ- ent equipment and services.

What kind of support do you get from the French

Consulate in Rio de Janeiro?

We receive a lot of support from French authorities in

Brazil, including in terms of security as we are also a defense company. They are also very helpful with under- standing the local bureaucracy and with local contacts.

There is a great demand for deepwater subsea equipment and services in Brazil, could you tell us a bit more about how the Alistar 3000 AUV is being used in the deepwater pre-salt by ECA and your partner Advanced-Subsea?

Deepwater services are based on Alistar 3000, either in autonomous mode or in remote mode using a 3km fiber optic umbilical. Scope of applications are construction support for field installation with pre-lay survey, touch- down point monitoring and as-laid/ as-built survey at the development stage and IMR activities such as pipeline inspection, FPSO riser & mooring inspection at the exploitation stage. Advanced

Subsea & ECA just launched a

Joint Innovation Project based on Alistar 3000 for sharing

AUV experience between major Brazilian market opera- tors. 42 MTR JanMarch 20111

Triton Imaging sample. (image cour tesy of T r iton Imaging)