Rolls-Royce has received an order from Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery to supply natural gas compressors for the Petrobras Gasene pipeline.

Siemens is the main contractor for the supply of turbo-compressor packages to the Brazilian state oil company for this project, with Rolls-Royce sub-contracted by Siemens to supply the compressors.

The order is for 11 Rolls-Royce RF3BB-20 centrifugal gas compressors that will be driven by Siemens SGT-200 gas turbines and installed at three compression stations along the 1400km, 28in Gasene natural gas pipeline system between Catu-Bahia State and Caçimbas-Espirito Santo State. It is designed to move 20 million cubic meters of gas per day.

Gasene is an important Brazilian government project to connect the existing south-eastern gas system to one in the north-east region of the country. It will start from the Cabiúnas terminal in Rio de Janeiro and will run to the city of Catu in Bahia.

Petrobras is investing heavily in the oil and gas exploration, and production area in the Espirito Santo Basin in south-eastern Brazil. The gas produced offshore will first be processed in a new gas treatment plant onshore before being transported via the new pipeline to consumers in the north-east of Brazil.

Rolls-Royce will manufacture the compressors at its Mount Vernon facility in Ohio, USA, for delivery to the Siemens assembly plant in Houston, Texas. The equipment will then be delivered from there to the compressor stations. First deliveries are scheduled for the third quarter of 2008.