Kongsberg Maritime expands customer support facilities in Rio and New Orleans

Even closer to the customer in key offshore and merchant markets.

Training of new staff.

Kongsberg Maritime is expanding its Customer Support offering for the Brazilian and Gulf of Mexico offshore and marine markets. The Norwegian headquartered offshore and marine systems specialist is present in 22 countries worldwide and already has thriving Customer Support operations in Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans, which will both be strengthened with new customer support staff to meet the growing demands in their respective markets following completion of the expansion.

New Orleans

In the Gulf of Mexico, which is currently attended by a 50 strong Customer Support office in New Orleans, there are approximately 90 rigs in operation, so there is great potential for Kongsberg Maritime’s already strong position in the region to grow further, making an expanded Customer Support function a high priority. The office covers the product areas of DP, reference systems, offshore automation, merchant automation and process control.

"Our goal is to complete as much as possible of the service for this region locally, thus saving the client the delays of having to wait for qualified help from our head office in Norway. Our office in New Orleans has both qualified first line engineers who can perform hardware support, and systems engineers who can assist with more complex tasks," says Bent Erik Bjørkli, Regional Manager Customer Support, North America, Kongsberg Maritime Inc, New Orleans.

Rio de Janeiro

Since 1997, the number of vessels based in Brazil with Kongsberg Maritime systems onboard has more than trebled and is likely to reach three to four hundred by 2012. The offshore oil & gas platform segment is also growing rapidly in the region, with approximately 24 present and 7 more rigs expected to come into operation in Brazilian waters during 2010. The Rio office is also responsible for providing Customer Support in other South American countries.

The Customer support expansion at the Rio office is ongoing, and the team will be strengthened by five local technicians and two experienced international technicians within two months, giving a total of 23 employees on the operational side. The team in Rio is experienced in service & support across a wide range of Kongsberg Maritime products and systems, including; all Dynamic Positioning hardware and software, reference systems and sensors and also the majority of Automation and Merchant systems.

Closer to our customers

"The expansions in Rio and New Orleans are based on increasing demands in the market," comments Geir Håøy, Executive Vice President Global Customer Support, Kongsberg Maritime. "Our Customer Support strategy in these key markets is to continue to grow our local organisation with the right competence and to be closer to our customers. In addition we have our pool of international resources available that can assist in periods of excessively high demand. Kongsberg Maritime has grown considerably in recent years, accordingly we are committed to utilising all our available resources worldwide to serve our customers."