VOITH has received a major order for the delivery of 60 variable-speed planetary gears type “Vorecon.” The Vorecons will enter service in offshore production on the oil fields on the huge pre-salt cluster in the Atlantic approximately 300 km outside Rio de Janeiro. The operator is a consortium led by the Brazilian mineral oil group Petrobras.

Production of the first Vorecon at Voith in Crailsheim is already underway and the delivery of the first gears is scheduled for November 2012, says the company in a statement.

“With this order, which will run for several years, Voith is strengthening its leading position in the growing oil and gas markets of Latin America and the Nafta region. The proportion of value creation in South America will rise throughout the duration of the project,” says the company.

Voith, active in Brazil for nearly 50 years, will build a new dedicated assembly hall with a test field at the location Sao Paulo.

The applied Voith technology is an important building block for the technically reliable and commercially viable exploitation of the oil reserves located off the Brazilian coast.

By 2017, the consortium of operators is setting up eight floating oil platforms in the area for a total of $3.5 billion. These platforms are to extract the oil reserves contained in the so-called pre-salt cluster up to seven km below the water surface.

The exploitation involves the penetration of a salt layer with a thickness of up to two km, as well as a three-km deep stone layer.

Regarding the exploitation of the pre-salt cluster, the operator is taking a new approach: a mixture of oil, gas and water is moved to the surface from the oil fields. The three constituents are then separated on special vessels. The crude oil is bunkered on ships, while the gas is returned to the subsea oil field and thus preserved for later utilisation. In the past, most of the gas was combusted and, therefore, lost.

Compressors densify the gas for return transportation into the oil field. The compressors are driven by electric motors, whose speed is controlled by the Voith Vorecon. As a result, the gas has a constant pressure of up to 550 bar, independent of its highly varying density. Due to its compact, robust design and its high reliability the Vorecon is ideal for the rough conditions in the Atlantic Ocean.

The variable-speed planetary gear from Voith is a product that has proven itself for decades in reliable operation in the oil and gas industry. The Vorecon for the Brazilian “Pre-Salt” oil field builds on this technology and this experience.

Voith Turbo, the specialist for hydrodynamic drive, coupling and braking systems for road, rail and industrial applications, as well as for ship propulsion systems, is a group division of Voith.

Voith sets standards in the markets energy, oil and gas, paper, raw materials and transportation and automotive. Founded in 1867, Voith employs almost 40 000 people, generates €5.6 billion in sales, operates in about 50 countries around the world and is today one of the biggest family-owned companies in Europe.

Voith Middle East located in TechnoPark, Jebel Ali, Dubai, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Voith Turbo, a reliable partner providing sales and services in the Middle East region. “We adopt the same global standards from our roots reaching out to our local customers in the region,” the company adds.