Vitória – Brazil is using Arab knowledge in the development and production of oil in the pre-salt layer, which is at great depths. The director of exploration and production at Petrobras, Guilherme Estrella, said yesterday (01), in the city of Vitória, that there are few places in the world in which there are operations of the sort and in which there is knowledge on the matter.
Among the countries that produce petroleum in the pre-salt layer in a profitable manner is Oman, located in the Arabian Peninsula and one of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). According to Estrella, representatives of the Brazilian state-owned oil company and of the companies that operate in a consortium with the organisation for exploration of Santos Basin have visited the Arab sultanate seeking information.
"We have brought knowledge from Oman, where one of our partners, [the Portuguese] Parsex, operates two or three blocks," said Estrella. "Our partners have contributed enormously to the improvement of our technical knowledge," he added.
According to the executive, the company is using the production procedure used in Oman, where, according to him, extraction in pre-salt is small, but profitable. The executive manager at Petrobras for exploration and production in the pre-salt layer, José Formigli, added, however, that the reserves in Oman are of older geologic age than the Brazilian, which makes it necessary to develop knowledge adequate to the local conditions.
In this respect, Estrella said that Petrobras has developed, in the city of Rio Claro (in the interior of São Paulo), a partnership with the University of the State of São Paulo (Unesp), a nucleus for development of scientific knowledge about the kind of rock found in the pre-salt layer.
Beginning
The company starts official production of petroleum in the pre-salt layer in Jubarte Field, in Campos Basin, Espírito Santo state, today (2). The event should include the presence of president Luiz Inácio da Silva.
Well 1-ESS-103A should have capacity for production of 18,000 barrels of light oil a day and, according to Estrella, should serve as a "school well" for the development of the gigantic reserves that have been discovered in Santos Basin. Tupi field alone has estimated reserves of between 5 billion and 8 billion barrels.
The company has already been promoting production tests in Jubarte well for around two weeks. In truth, the well was drilled in 2002, but at the time there was not yet knowledge of the potential of the pre-salt layer. To start producing, Petrobras invested 50 million reals (US$ 30.4 million) in the site, a volume considered low by the oil industry.
According to the general exploration manager in Espírito Santo, Márcio Félix, the value was low due to the use of existing structures. The exploratory well itself was adapted for production, as was platform P-34, which was in operation just 2.5 kilometres away from the site extracting oil from shallower layers.
According to Estrella, the start of production in Jubarte is going to help in the construction of a great data bank about the pre-salt layer and, subsequently, in the development of the reserves in Santos Basin. "Brazil is going to become reference in the matter," he said. "The oil industry lives from the discovery of new frontiers and the Brazilian pre-salt is a matter of interest to the sector worldwide," he added.
The moment was classified as "historic" by the executive, as production in the pre-salt layer may make Brazil into one of the main oil producers in the world and also a net exporter. "Brazil is a continental country and needs energy, especially now that it is taking a step in the direction of development. The country will need energy over the next decades and benefits must be guaranteed to the Brazilian people," he said.
The government has not yet decided what the legal model applied to production in Santos Basin will be. An inter-ministry committee was established to discuss the matter and present a report to the president of Brazil by the end of the month.
There is already, however, an advanced programme for the exploration of Tupi. Next year long-term testing begins in the field and, at the end of 2009, production should begin in a pilot project. Brazilian president Lula has been stating that he hopes that oil production may be used in the production of high-quality oil products for export, adding value to Brazilian sales. He also wants the bulk of revenues to be invested in education and health.
Investment
Estrella said, however, that Petrobras is not going to turn investment that had been forecasted for other areas to the pre-salt. Over the last two years, the company has invested around US$ 1.7 billion in the drilling of 15 wells that reached the pre-salt layer.
"We do not forecast turning funds from other areas to the pre-salt, it has come to add, to make Petrobras into a much larger company than it already is," he said. In this respect, the executive said that investment may be made in new refineries to produce premium fuels.
He added, though, that despite the higher costs for production in the pre-salt layer than in shallower areas, production should certainly be profitable due to the high prices of the commodity on the international market. Despite the little knowledge about exploration at such deep areas, Estrela said that "there are no technical barriers", and that the challenge, according to him, is to manage to reduce the operation costs.
The cost in Tupi will be higher than in Jubarte, as the reserves in the state of Espírito Santo are shallower, at 4,550 metres with 200 metres of salt, whereas the reserves at Tupi are at over 6,000 metres, with 2,000 metres of salt.
*Translated by Mark Ament
