International classification society Bureau Veritas has agreed a technical co-operation deal with COPPE/UFRJ, the Ocean Engineering department of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, to set up a joint development centre. The move builds on co-operation agreements with nineteen universities in China, Russia, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, Taiwan and France and is intended to speed the development of tools and technical requirements needed to facilitate Brazil’s expansion into deep offshore oil exploitation. Pierre Besse, Vice-President Research and Development for Bureau Veritas said, “We will initially have four people working full time on the Rio university development group…