Published in 05/08/2019

The management of the production sharing contracts is already being performed by means of a digital system developed by Pré-Sal Petróleo. The company has just made available to operators three more modules of the Production Sharing Expense Management System (SGPP), completing a total of seven interactions dedicated to the operation of the contracts. Thus, all the documentation relating to ballot voting, local content, oil cost audit, cost recognition and recovery are now tracked online by the company and the operators. The company's technical team also has access through the system to monitor the production of each contract and to calculate the oil surplus.

According to André Onofre, Information Technology Manager, the system facilitates the management of the production sharing contracts (CPP) and brings greater agility, transparency, security and reliability to the project for the company and operators. An example is the validation of shipments sent to Pré-Sal Petróleo for recognition of contracts costs. Previously, they were sent as Excel spreadsheets and it took about two days for Pré-Sal Petróleo technicians to manually analyze the consistency of the documents. "Today, when the operator submits the online spreadsheet, the system automatically validates it within 40 seconds. If there is a cost line that is not 100%, the system itself recognizes the error (from predefined parameters) and returns the spreadsheet to the operator, identifying the fields for repair. By these means, the operator can correct the shipments faster and the Pré-Sal Petróleo technical team saves time for more complex analyses", explains Exploration Superintendent, Augusto Silva Telles.

The SGPP is already being used regularly by Petrobras for the Libra, Uirapuru, Alto de Cabo Frio Central, Peroba, Dois Irmãos and Três Marias contracts. Shell has already adopted it for Alto de Cabo Frio Oeste and Sul do Gato do Mato. It is expected that in the coming months the data from all the CPPs (contracts) to be in the system. "The first experiences have been very good and constructive. We are talking to all the operators and customizing whatever is possible to meet the demands", said Telles.

By September, three other SGPP modules will be operating to support the other company’s areas of activity. Two of them will bring together the processes relating to the individualization of the production agreements and the Expenditure and Volume Equalization (financial reconciliations arising from these agreements) and the third one will be dedicated to the trading activity of the Federal Government's oil and gas.

SGPP's entry into operation is the first step in the company's digital transformation. According to Onofre, the next challenge is to add analytical and artificial intelligence tools, which will allow both the tracking of all project activities in real time and the production of customized reports, comparing data between CPPs. "We want to use the technology to optimize our performance. Robots perform routine tasks and our technicians focus on the business. We are forming a strong base with all the operation data of the contracts. The technicians will be able to compare since the project cost variations to the prices per equipment or even identify the most profitable contracts for the Federal Government. This will help in the decision making", explained Onofre.

The project was employed with information technology in the "Software As A Service" (SaaS) mode. To meet the challenging goal of starting operations within seven months, all processes adopted at Pre-Sal Petróleo for the performance of its activities were previously mapped and the concept of agile methodology of development was adopted during the SGPP construction phase. One of the technical advantages of the system is the fact that it is expandable, allowing the company to add the management of future sharing contracts in the coming years. The integrity and secrecy of the data of each CPP is also guaranteed and safeguarded by the system. Each operator will have access to their contract data only.

Pré-Sal Petróleo is a company linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy and its mission is to manage the production sharing contracts, to represent the Federal Government in the individualization of the production agreements and to perform the trading of all the hydrocarbons of the Federal Government. Today 14 production sharing contracts are in force.