Heatric has won an £80 million contract to supply high performance compact Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers (PCHEs) to the Brazilian national oil and gas company, Petrobras. These PCHEs will be used on Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units deployed to the pre-salt oil fields, offshore from Brazil.

Building relationships

A Petrobras delegation visited Heatric’s offices in Dorset as part of their inward mission to take part in UKTI’s Brazil conference. Heatric used this as a catalyst to develop a relationship with the Brazilian company, culminating in the award of this contract.

The UKTI team in Rio provided the company with market advice. International Trade Advisor (ITA) colleagues in the UK offered multi-market support to feed into the company’s wider internationalisation strategy.

Nick Johnston, Director of Sales, Heatric says,

“UKTI continues to identify opportunities for us to raise our profile and connect with relevant local stakeholders. They knew who we needed to speak to in Brazil and made sure we got face-to-face time with them.”

Winning contracts in Brazil

Heatric registered on Petrobras’ suppliers list, Petronect , a system which is now online and in English.

Heatric also found local partners to assemble the heat exchangers in Brazil so as to provide local content. This was in line with the regulations laid out by the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency, ANP.

Future business in Brazil

Petrobras plan to double their production from 2 to 4 million barrels of oil per day by 2020.

In order to do this they will treble the fleet of FPSOs and Pipe Laying Support Vessels (PLSV) ensuring there will continue to be further commercial opportunities for British companies in Brazil.