General Electric (GE) has opened its new $500m global research and development (R&D) centre in Brazil, which will focus on subsea oil and gas research, capitalising on $1.2 trillion offshore market opportunity.
The Brazil Technology Center, which is situated on the Ilha do Bom Jesus peninsula in Rio de Janeiro, is one of nine research facilities worldwide, and one of five outside the US.
“The site will feature a Crotonville GE leadership facility to help develop Latin American industry leaders in the future and will also house a global learning facility.”
The 250,000ft² facility will serve as a hub for engagement and collaboration with GE’s customers.
The centre is expected to employ 400 researchers in the future, with half of the facility’s space dedicated to laboratories.
The site will feature a Crotonville GE leadership facility to help develop Latin American industry leaders in the future and will also house a global learning facility.
GE chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said: “Our new research centre in Brazil will allow GE to innovate locally for our customers in Latin America and then export those innovations to the world.
“Over the past decade, we have doubled-down on our R&D investment and expanded our global network of research centres to address customers’ growing needs for breakthrough technology that we develop with them.”
GE said it will work with Petrobras and BG Group on research projects for the development of the technologies and equipment needed to move production from platforms to seabeds.
GE, which has been operating in Brazil since 1919, currently employs more than 8,800 people in the country.
