QA Weld Tech wins large orders from Brazil

QA Weld Tech has secured over £2.5 million of orders for subsea production equipment from Brazil over the past few months. The latest orders are for the huge Mero field, an ultra-deepwater oilfield situated approximately 180km offshore Rio de Janeiro in the Libra block, located in the pre-salt area of the Santos basin. The Mero oilfield holds approximately 3.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), with first oil expected in 2021.

QAWT will be manufacturing a variety of production pipespools and goosenecks forming part of the subsea trees controlling the flow of oil and gas from each well. Designed to withstand high pressure at immense depths, parts are built with a design life of in excess of 25 years, and are therefore manufactured to the highest standards.  

QA Weld Tech’s Managing Director, Charlie Tighe said:

We’re delighted to have won these orders; the fall in the price of oil at the start of 2020 has had a massive impact on an industry still recovering after the 2016 downturn, and many projects have been re-scheduled, deferred, cancelled or being put out to re-tender as the oil companies look to make significant savings.

In response, we’ve had to streamline our business, working with our suppliers to standardise our requirements and make us and the supply chain more efficient, whist maintaining the quality and delivery performance our clients demand.

This has been achieved despite the COVID-19 situation which has made us re-evaluate how we work safely in the face of the challenges presented. The cooperation of our staff and employees with a great “can-do” attitude means we have continued to operate with minimal disruption to our business.

The Brazilian market is extremely difficult to enter, generally favouring locally sourced equipment, but we were able to demonstrate our ability to understand our clients’ demands and meet their timescales for this technically challenging project.