Published in 12/12/2019

Carlos Alberto Pereira de Oliveira, Director of Exploration and Production at Petrobras, launched the "speed challenge" on the first panel of the 2nd Pré-Sal Petróleo Technical Forum, featuring the ambitious company target of decreasing the time span between discovery and first oil from the current average of three thousand days to one thousand days. For Petrobras, the thousand-day goal consolidates the speed in project implementation as the biggest challenge to be overcome by the combination of technology and cooperation between government and companies in order to forecast results and maximize values.

Oliveira highlighted that cutting phases short and accelerating production "is positive for the companies and for the Federal Government". In his view, the concentration of efforts towards this goal may, for example, contribute for government participations generated by the production sharing agreements for oil production reach R$ 2.3 trillion before 2055.

This number was presented at the Forum''s opening panel held by Eduardo Gerk, chairman of Pré-Sal Petróleo, as a forecast from a study carried out by the company''s Strategic Planning department, in collaboration with the epbr agency. This study, focused in the 2020-2032 period, has estimated the amount of government participations for the period amounting to R$ 1 trillion. The director of Petrobras already forecasted that, in 2015, with the use of disruptive technology, oil may be discovered without the need to drill an exploratory well.

Paulo Carvalho, Technical and Supervisory Officer at Pré-Sal Petróleo, who also hosted the panel, showed that there is the highest affinity between the companies'' efforts and consortiums that already signed deals within the production sharing agreement and the primary objective of the government company, which is "maximize the value of the pre-salt oil for the Federal Government". Carvalho emphasized that this affinity resides solely on the fact that "results cannot be maximized for the Federal Government without maximizing for everyone"

"As we said previously, time is of the essence", said Lars Jetlund Hansen, Technical Subsurface Manager of Equinor''s Carcará Project, when presenting the work performed by the Norwegian company to extract the first oil of the Norte de Carcará Agreement in 2023. The official preview is that the production starts on 2024. According to the Government, the delivery of the Development Plan for the area is scheduled for the first semester of 2020. Norte de Carcará is a partnership between Equinor (operator), with 40%, ExxonMobil Brasil, with 40%, and Petrogal Brasil, with 20%.

Hansen highlighted that the best technological solution for a more productive development of Carcará Norte, at least in the current scenario, is through reinjection of produced gas, with an additional water injection, without abandoning the studies on the possibility of future commercialization of gas production from the field. The information of the Equinor''s technician has reinforced the statement made moments before by Carvalho, from Pré-Sal Petróleo, that, according to available data, building now the required infrastructure for commercialization of the gas would "economically handicap the fields".

Bruno William, Well Drilling Engineer and Head of Digital Transformation at Shell Brasil, stated that the company is working in creating value through optimization of drilling and well completion. Shell Brasil is in the pre-salt production sharing agreements as operator of the Saturno oil field, of which it holds 50% of the capital (the other 50% belongs to Chevron), and the Três Marias field, of which it holds 40%, in partnership with Petrobras (operator, 30%) and Chevron (30%).

William stated that both as an operator and as a partner, Shell is developing 107 initiatives on different operation levels, mainly in order to decrease the impact of the exploration and development time, as to accelerate production and speed up financial returns. One of Shell''s initiatives aims at reaching completion of a pre-salt well in just 26 days.

This entire speech focused on speed has an underlying objective, which is maximization of profits within a transition scenario for an economy based on clean and renewable energy. The main goal is to employ resources from the 4.0 industry as alternatives for monetizing the richness of hydrocarbons, in tandem with this transition process.

Chairman of BP Upstream Brasil, Adriano Bastos stated, during the speech that closed the panel, that BP is comfortable in approaching this transition, since it has already transitioned from the status of oil company to energy company. "What brought us here won''t take us into the future", says the executive, reinforcing the need to combine new production processes with legal stability that ensures long-term investments.

BP Energy leads the Pau-Brasil field consortium as operator and holder of 50% of the capital, in partnership with Ecopetrol (20%) and CNOOC Petroleum (30%). Bastos said that Brazil is seen as a role model for the world due to the cleanliness of its energy grid, and emphasized that gas will be an important element in order to accelerate the ongoing transition, defending the monetization of the molecule, either through commercialization or reinjection.

Panel of Carlos Alberto Pereira de Oliveira, Production and Exploration Officer at Petrobras, at the 2nd Forum

Pré-Sal Petróleo Technician

Credit: Guarim de Lorena