Brazil ///
Aging offshore oil wells that once brought market prominence to Europe, the U.S. Gulf and Brazil are increasingly money losers that companies want shut down amid low oil prices and a struggling global economy. But the effort won’t be cheap.
Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant, is plowing through a global oil glut expecting that exports to China will soon rebound, and with extensive storage capacity helping it endure in the meantime.
Weatherford International saved an operator 27.5 hours of deepwater rig time with an Integrated Completion Solution it developed to install downhole equipment in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil.
The milestone contract is significant for the offshore Brazilian oil and gas industry, which typically uses thermoplastic hose umbilicals.
Mike Slaton, Contributing Editor
Short-term gains; long-term questions
Schlumberger announced today an award to Subsea Integration Alliance of an exclusive contract by Equinor for the front-end engineering design (FEED) on its Bacalhau (formerly Carcará) project offshore Brazil.
Brazil, which became a net oil exporter last year, wants to expand its footprint in global energy markets without joining OPEC.
TGS announced the completion of a new multibeam and coring program covering over 213,0000 square kilometers in the Campos and Santos basins of offshore Brazil.
FPSO Sepetiba will be deployed at the Mero field in the Santos basin offshore Brazil, 180 kilometers offshore Rio de Janeiro. Delivery is expected in 2022.
While Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro recently welcomed an informal invitation to join OPEC, the boss of the country’s state-controlled energy company isn’t a fan of the idea and said it’s not a possibility right now.
Petrobras plans to pay its shareholders $34 billion in dividends over the next five years as it cuts debt and sells assets to shore up its finances, CEO Roberto Castello Branco said.
The Itaoca Offshore project will be a private terminal (TUP), located in Itapemirim, in the Espírito Santo (ES) state in southeast Brazil, designed to provide logistical support to the supply chain for the exploration and production of offshore oil and gas.
Deepwater production has come online from the Brazilian pre-salt Santos basin. Shell Brasil and its consortium partners announced the start of oil and natural gas production at the P-68 FPSO, located in BM-S-11-A Concession in Berbigão, Sururu and West Atapu.
Petrobras CEO Roberto Castello Branco said the reason most major oil companies didn’t show up for Brazil’s massive auction was because of the astronomic price tag and regulatory uncertainties.
Brazil’s largest-ever auction of oil deposits flopped, sending the real tumbling, after state-controlled Petrobras did most of the bidding while other major oil companies stayed away.
“Whether or not we participate, it would be wrapped up in how we would see that opportunity versus all the other investment options, because there are a lot of investment options out there right now,” said Stephen Greenlee, Exxon's president of exploration.
The Saudi offer highlights Brazil’s growing importance as an oil producer as well as the challenge it poses to the producer group’s influence on crude markets.
An auction next month of oilfields in Brazil may be the priciest ever held, raising at least $50 billion in licensing fees and compensation, according to people familiar with government estimates.
According to Ecopetrol estimates, the company could incorporate about 90 MMbbl of crude oil in contingent resources from 2020, which will be gradually added to its balance of reserves.
The event, organized in conjunction with the Latin American Environmental Film Festivals, and which focuses on the causes related to sustainability, drew an audience of nearly seven thousand people.