Rolls-Royce seeks Petrobras rig contracts to boost Brazil sales

Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc will bid to sell 16 more oil-platform power turbines to Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) after a $650 million contract with the state-run company almost doubled its market share in Brazil, Bloomberg reports. The drive to supply Petrobras with power-generation equipment for offshore platforms is part of efforts to double sales in South America in 10 years, Francisco Itzaina, head of Rolls-Royce for the region, said today in an telephone interview from Rio de Janeiro. The London-based company’s South America unit currently has annual sales of about $700 million, he said.
Brazilian offshore platforms will require about 200 energy turbines in 10 years as Petrobras and other oil producers tap deep-water reserves including the largest discoveries in the Americas in more than three decades, according to Itzaina. Petrobras plans $224.7 billion of investments through 2015 to develop the so-called pre-salt deposits sitting miles below the floor of the Atlantic trapped under layers of rock and salt.
Petrobras last month awarded Rolls-Royce a contract to supply 32 natural-gas turbines for eight offshore platforms. The sale boosted Rolls-Royce’s market share in the Brazilian market for platform turbines to about 70 percent from 40 percent, Itzaina said.
Rolls-Royce rose 1.7 percent to 741 pence at 1:28 p.m. in London, extending this year’s gain to 17 percent.