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30 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? JULY 2013 Brazil ClassABS Group The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is a non-proÞ t classiÞ cation soci- ety founded in 1862. ABS has been pres- ent in Brazil for more than 40 years, with more than 200 employees distributed be-tween six ofÞ ces in Brazil. ?We have been providing classi Þ cation services to the offshore industry longer than any other class society, and we are the current market leader in worldwide MODU classiÞ cation and also mar- ket leaders in ß oating production units (FPI), more than 50% of the global over- book for FPSOs is being classiÞ ed by ABS,? said João Carlos Ferreira, Vice- President South American Region. ?Our key areas in Brazil are Asset Integrity, Risk and Reliability and Naval Engi-neering. We are also present in a special feature of the Brazilian market, which is Local Content certiÞ cation, being ac- credited by Brazil?s ANP (National Pe- troleum Agency) for this purpose,? he said. ?Brazil is a growing offshore mar- ket with almost unlimited potential and we are working closely with companies involved to maximize this potential.?ABS is also working with Petrobras? R&D center CENPES, COPPE/UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and other organizations on R&D efforts, local content certiÞ cation, FPSO life extension (FLEx) and more. Buoyed by Brazil?s development and to leverage its global R&D resources, ABS established its Brazil Offshore Technology Cen- ter (BOTC) in Rio de Janeiro in 2009. Christiane Machado, Head of ABS?s BOTC said, ?We have been develop- ing various projects for the offshore industry, such as FLEx, involving new rules and requirements for developing a continued operation protocol in order to extend FPSO operations while de-creasing their need to drydock.? Some other BOTC projects include Production Riser Connectors (2012-2013), Aging of Subsea Equipment (2013-2014), which involves accessing the level of safety threat posed by aging subsea equipment not easily substitutable, such as ESPs (electrical submersible pumps).João Carlos Pacheco, ABS?s General Manager in Brazil spoke about the chal-lenges faced in the country. ?ABS is di- rectly involved in all aspects of the off- shore industry in Brazil, be it pipelines and other subsea equipment certiÞ cation or FPSOs and OSV classi Þ cation, along with industry training and guidance. We are classifying deepwater drilling rigs for Sete Brasil (a Petrobras company), being built or to be built in Þ ve different Brazilian shipyards. These will be the Þ rst drillships ever built in Brazil.? He explained that there have been delays in the process of awarding these contracts and that these delays are part of the chal-lenge of operating in Brazil, where bu-reaucracy commonly affects the duration of industry projects.Sidney dos Santos Bereicoa, ABS?s Di- rector of Engineering for South America said, ?ABS is committed to developing new concepts for the offshore industry in Brazil, such as Offshore GTL (Gas to Liquid) and we have given an AIP (Ap- proval in Principal) for the technological concept.? The GTL concept will permit associated gas to be processed without continuous ß aring. This concept is be- ing developed by partnerships between Petrobras and CompactGTL (A British company based Abingdon, Oxfordshire), this AIP was given by ABS Houston. ?This is a vital new technological con-cept as is permits operators to discontin-ue ß aring which is wasteful and aggres- sive to the environment and at the same time transform the liqueÞ ed gas into sulfur-free synthetic crude, which can then be mixed with crude oil,? said Sid-ney dos Santos Bereicoa. SBM will be including GTL modules in its new pre- salt FPSOs already ordered by Petrobras.Another new concept underway in Brazil with ABS guidance is the Multi- Column Buoy concept being developed by Petrobras? CENPES Technology Cen- ter. Sidney dos Santos Bereicoa pointed out that ?Between 2012 and 2013 three FPSOs were classiÞ ed and had equip- ment certiÞ ed by ABS, these were FPSO Cidade de Anchieta, the FPSO Cidade de Itaja and FPSO Cidade de São Paulo.? ABS is also classifying another Þ ve pre-salt FPSOs and a variety of mod-ules for pre-salt FPSOs, along with the TLWP P-61 and OSX-2 and 3, which are FPSOs for OGX Þ elds at the Campos Basin, among other projects. DNVDNV was founded in 1864 in Oslo, Norway and has been present in Brazil since 1974, currently having 300 em-ployees in the country. DNV has par- ticipated in numerous JIPs along with development projects aimed at Brazil-ian pre-salt E&P challenges. Accord- ing to DNV?s Director of Operations, Tommy Bjørnsen, a good example of a DNV led JIP was the project on recom- mended practices for horizontal drilling. ?This JIP had the objective of evaluat- ing and agreeing on a guideline for planning, engineering and execution of HDD (Horizontal Directional Drilling) for pipeline installation,? said Bjørnsen. It had eleven participating companies, such as, Petrobras, Subsea7, Sinopec, To understand how ABS and DNV participate in Brazil?s complex and challenging Maritime and O&G industries, MR spoke to ABS?s João Carlos Ferreira , DNV?s Tommy Bjørnsen and their colleagues in Rio de Janeiro. By Claudio Paschoa, BrazilMR #7 (26-33).indd 30MR #7 (26-33).indd 307/1/2013 9:19:22 AM7/1/2013 9:19:22 AM