Noble Denton Moves to Larger Facility, Brazil

Noble Denton, global offshore engineering and marine services company, announced its move into a new office facility in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The new 850 square meter facility is located at Rua Araujo Porto Alegre, 36, 5th Floor, in downtown Rio.

Noble Denton currently employs 28 in Brazil, and the company has aggressive plans for growth. It expects to employ 40 to 45 people by the end of 2009, and to reach 80 full-time employees in the next three years.

"Noble Denton has been growing rapidly in Brazil over the past few years, and this office move is a part of our plan to increase our presence in Latin America,” said Andrew Theophanatos, Brazil Country Manager, Noble Denton. “Brazil represents one of the most active regions for offshore exploration & production services globally, especially for deepwater fields, and this move reaffirms our commitment to this market. We expect these improved facilities will benefit our employees as well as our customers.”

The key services that will be provided from the new facility will include engineering & consultancy for FPSOs/FPUs, Subsea transportation and installation marine surveying, risk and project management, marine operations and HSE.

Noble Denton’s office in Rio is led by Andrew Theophanatos, who has been with Noble Denton Brazil for the past eight years and brings 25 years of project management, marine consultancy and technical experience. In addition, Arthur Aragon, who previously served as Group Director for Project Management Services with Noble Denton’s Houston office, has been appointed to Brazil to focus exclusively on the opportunities for the company’s project management services for the oil & gas and renewable energies.

To support the company’s growth, Noble Denton Brazil recently launched a graduate training program. Currently, eight students from Rio de Janeiro state are participating in this continuing program conducted in partnership with local universities. The year-long training program focuses on structural engineering, mechanical engineering, naval architecture, subsea engineering, project management and contract administration. At the conclusion, the best students are hired.

“This training program aims at addressing the skills shortage, which is one of the major challenges the engineering industry in Brazil is facing,” Theophanatos said. “The training program is specifically tailored towards the local market needs and it reflects Noble Denton’s long-term commitment to this region. We plan to increase the number of participants over time so that we can continue to hire some of the best and brightest recent engineering graduates in Brazil.”

The Noble Denton Brazil office counts some of the largest oil & gas companies in the region as its customers, including Petrobras, Quip, Acergy, Odebrecht, KeppelFels,Technip, Global Industries, Superpesa, British Gas, Queiroz Galvão, Transocean, Noble Drilling and Repsol YPF.

(www.nobledenton.com)