HRT Participações em Petróleo S.A., Thursday signed a contract with the Joint Venture Andrews Technologies, Inc. and Sichuan Honghua Petroleum Equipment Ltd. for the acquisition of four heli-transportable drilling rigs for the exploratory campaign in the Solimões Sedimentary Basin.

The bidding process for the hiring of the drilling rigs was published on June 15 of this year and involved large world corporations.

According to HRT, the company analyzed proposals, adopting the best price and technology criteria, thus selecting the ATI-HH company, which holds the know-how and technology for use of helitransportable equipment, allowing the rigs to be assembled/disassembled in modules, in order to be transported by helicopters to operate in areas of difficult access, like the Amazon region.

The rigs have the capacity to drill up to a depth of four thousand meters. The first two rigs should arrive in the Shanghai Port, in China, in February, and the remaining ones, in March of 2012. After this delivery, the equipment is expected to arrive in Manaus within approximately two months, ready to be transported to the Support Base, and later, to the drilling site.

Andrews Technologies, Inc. (ATI) is an oilfield services company with corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas, working mostly in Mexico, China and Brazil in the Oil and Gas E&P market sector. ATI collaborates closely with Chinese oil services companies and oilfield equipment manufacturers in long-term partnership.

In the last ten years ATI has obtained contracts for seismic acquisition, drilling and related services, supply of drilling rigs and oilfield tubular goods for the US, Mexico and Brazil markets in excess of 800 Million US Dollars.
 
Honghua Group Ltd. (Honghua) is one of the world’s principal land rig manufacturers and the largest rig package export enterprise in China. Honghua has an annual production capacity of more than 120 rigs, specializing in R&D, engineering, manufacturing and assembly of onshore and offshore drilling equipment.

Honghua Group Ltd offers a large range of diverse drilling equipment and delivers superior technical support services through its well established global network. Honghua is a leading edge manufacturer providing new and advanced cost-efficient solutions.

HRT Participações holds one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in Brazil. The HRT Group comprises eight main subsidiaries. The Company retains a 55% interest in 21 exploratory blocks.

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