There is no doubt that Petrobras is the biggest investor in the Brazilian market in recent years. At each annual presentation, your five-year plan is added to your investment values. It is really the largest Brazilian investor and therefore a focus of attraction for numerous foreign companies, which want to participate in this great lode. At the same time, we can see at every moment the increase in the policy of nationalization of products, culminating with the recent change in the rules for the definition of national content for pre-salt projects, issued by the ANP.
In our opinion, the important thing is for Petrobras to be the great lever of Brazilian industrialization, as it has always been, but at the same time to be the one that makes the national content really competitive globally, so that projects are not more expensive in Brazil than abroad. However, as a corollary of these aspects, the most important thing for the Petrobras end customer is that the project's TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is not too high. Not only measuring the enterprise by its CAPEX, but adding the cost that the “Ownership”, that is, the end customer, has to bear for that acquisition, whether it is a national product, an imported product or a product with great local content. We need to assess the “Total Cost” that this acquisition will have as an impact on the project.
Hence, it is vitally important when defining the purchase, by the EPC or by the Petrobras final customer, to correctly assess whether that supplier, whether foreign or national, has real capacity to provide the necessary support, initially for the start-up and later in the day-to-day, after startup of the project. That may be the point at which the acquisition simply by CAPEX may be bringing great costs when evaluated on the TCO aspect.
Fluxo represents more than 25 foreign companies in the country, in addition to having partnerships with numerous Brazilian companies, when supplying its Integrated Installations package, through which it offers the customer not only an equipment or system, but a MAC package, with reduction radical approach to contact interfaces between buyer and seller. The company's biggest concern is to be absolutely sure that it will be able to solve the problems in Brazil with its staff. Thus, it has performed numerous maintenance services, both preventive and predictive, with its personnel trained by the manufacturers.
However, we see that, for the customer, what counts is that the equipment or installations purchased really work, in accordance with the purchase specifications, and are available throughout their useful life. Hence, we thought of offering the customer no longer a Maintenance Contract, but an Availability Contract.
What does it means? It is about assuming the performance of the equipment or installation to the customer, making it work well, as specified at the time of purchase, according to an index to be agreed between the parties, that is, that works, for example, 90% of time, without the customer's concern to intervene. In this case, Fluxo should assume the role of performance inspector in the field, be responsible for selecting and storing spare parts and intervening in the field, when necessary, to be responsible for the agreed rate.
One of the critical points of a plant is the responsibility for the performance of the valves, especially the motorized ones. Usually these are different manufacturers of valves (various manufacturers), electric or fluid actuators and the automation of the valve remote control system. We've been to many plants where the user didn't even receive the system working, that is, we answered the complaint that it doesn't work and when we're going to see, it wasn't installed correctly, nor is it in the correct mesh. In other words, the EPC did not complete the services properly and the customer did the wrongful acceptance.
Fluxo understands that the Availability Contract is the greatest response it can give to the market regarding its responsibility for supplies. The company is prepared to assume the operation of a complete STVM, including the performance of the valves. For this, it is supported by several authorized workshops in strategically selected locations to cover the market, in addition to maintaining technical personnel specialized in electrical and pneumatic actuators at its headquarters.
The Availability Contract agrees on a premium and a fine. If the agreed rate is exceeded, Fluxo receives a prize and if its performance is not good, it receives a penalty. This experience with actuators and valves should be extended to other equipment that Fluxo represents or distributes. This is a new challenge.
Hideo Hama he is president of Fluxo Soluções Integradas.