GE reaffirms commitment to Russian sector

General Electric has reaffirmed its commitment to the company’s growth plans in Russia by announcing a US$1 billion sourcing programme and signing a series of agreements with its Russian strategic partners at the 17th GE Oil & Gas Annual Meeting in Florence.

The new initiatives are aimed at accelerating GE’s localisation of advanced technology solutions across the oil and gas, power, and transportation industries, as well as driving demand for local suppliers.??

GE announced it will work with Russian businesses to develop up to US$1 billion in sourcing opportunities by 2020 to better meet its global manufacturing needs by capitalizing on the increased competitiveness of Russian fabrication, forging, and casting.

The company is currently working on several key infrastructure projects with Russian producers that meet GE quality and safety standards.

Jeff Immelt, GE Chairman and CEO, said: “We continue to see long-term development opportunities in Russia, including in sourcing from Russian manufacturers for our global businesses. Today, we are also pleased to be strengthening our partnerships with Rosneft and Transmashholding. This is a great example of GE working with leading Russian companies to tackle some of the region’s most technically intensive projects.”

Expanding the scope of their 2013 strategic partnership, GE and Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company, announced a long-term co-operation program to jointly develop local expertise and advanced solutions, including in marine propulsion and oilfield equipment manufacturing.

?In marine:

• GE and Rosneft will proceed with preparations for joint work at an industrial shipbuilding cluster in Vladivostok. The cluster is planned to locally produce electrical equipment and steerable pod thrusters based on GE technology – as well as service marine diesel engines produced by a GE-Transmashholding joint venture – for Rosneft’s fleet and other Russian civil vessels.
• At the meeting in Florence, GE, Rosneft, and Transmashholding signed a Letter of Intent providing for the local production of GE V250 marine diesel engines by the GE-Transmashholding JV in Penza, Russia. The delivery of the first units to Rosneft is expected in early 2018.

In oil and gas:

• GE and Rosneft will further explore development plans for a facility in Murmansk, Russia to locally assemble GE oil & gas equipment to support Rosneft’s production activities.
• The companies will continue joint work on artificial lift technology, with deliveries of GE electric submersible pumps (ESPs) already underway to Rosneft and its subsidiaries for testing and evaluation.
• Advancing their collaboration on small-scale LNG technologies, GE and Rosneft’s subsidiary Itera will move forward with development plans for the first small-scale LNG plant in Russia.
• The companies will co-operate on a pilot project to leverage GE digital technologies for remote monitoring and control to further optimize operations at Rosneft’s largest refinery, located in Ryazan, Russia.
• GE and Rosneft will also evaluate the potential of stationary distributed power solutions based on diesel engines locally produced by GE and Transmashholding in Penza.

Commenting on the programme signing, Igor Sechin, Rosneft Management Board Chairman, said: “The implementation of the programme signed today with one of the global technology leaders, signifies that our partnership is entering a new stage – industrial cooperation – which will enable us to meet the buoyant demand being formed by the Russian fuel and energy sector with the potential to jointly enter global markets.”

Edited from source by Elizabeth Corner

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