São Paulo – Oil discoveries in the pre-salt layer and the strategic location of the port city made Santos the ideal choice to host the offices of the Petrobras Business Unit for Exploration and Production in Santos Basin (UN-BS). The complex, which should start being built next year, in Valongo neighbourhood, should include three towers that, together, should generate almost 7,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs. The forecasted investment is 350 million reals (US$ 204 million). The 25,000-square-metre piece of land, which cost 15 million reals (US$ 8.7 million), is at the entrance to the city, alongside the port.
According to the UN-BS general manager, José Luiz Marcusso, during implementation there should be around 1,200 people working on the construction, and the first tower should be ready in two years. "The complex will include a modern operations centre for the whole of Santos Basin, as well as a museum telling the story of oil and the development of this important Brazilian sedimentary basin."
Apart from that, the logistics base of the unit should be installed in the region, more specifically in Guarujá, a popular city on the coast of São Paulo. "We should build a port and warehouses in 2014 and an airport in 2015 or 2016," said Marcusso.
According to him, the unit should help reduce Brazilian dependence on imported natural gas and should strengthen self-sufficiency in oil.
Based in Santos since 2006, Petrobras has been collaborating for the development of the region, generating jobs, taxes and opportunities for businessmen and service providers. In Santos alone there are already 1,000 direct employees.
Over the next ten years, Petrobras, together with several partners, should invest approximately US$ 18 billion in projects in Santos Basin, from where extraction should reach around 30 million cubic metres of gas per day, starting in 2011.
The company currently has 17 drills in operation in Santos Basin. These operations are responsible for 4,500 direct jobs. Apart from that, the teams working on operation and maintenance, excluding drilling, total another 500 people.
Marcusso added that first of all Petrobras is establishing large-scale pilot projects and platforms in series. "At Mexilhão terminal, some 140 kilometres away from Caraguatatuba, the pre-salt layer already has three systems implemented," explained Marcusso. Mexilhão platform, which started operating this year, has capacity for production of up to 15 million cubic metres of gas and 20,000 barrels of condensate a day. Monteiro Lobato Gas Treatment Unit (UTGCA), in Caraguatatuba, which is also part of the Mexilhão Hub, should generate 3,000 jobs and start operating in the first quarter of 2011.
Marcusso added that since April, Petrobras has been producing gas in Lagosta field, in Praia Grande, supplying sufficient fuel for the Santos region.
The Tupi pilot project, in turn, which has been operating since October, has production capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil and four million cubic metres of natural gas per day. The gas may also be transported to Monteiro Lobato, also receiving material from Uruguá-Tambaú project, another well in Santos Basin.
"Operations in the pre-salt layer began in 2009. In 11 years, great growth is expected for Santos and the surrounding region," he said.
Marcusso also stated that the company should continue investing in exploration, aiming at the production of 1.8 million barrels of oil a day in the pre-salt layer of Santos Basin in 2020, guaranteeing continued growth of future production.
About Santos Basin
Santos Basin is the largest sedimentary basin in Brazil, covering an area of 352,000 square kilometres from Cabo Frio, in Rio de Janeiro, to Florianópolis, the capital of the state of Santa Catarina. It includes reserves in the pre-salt layer, 300 kilometres off the coast. Currently, Petrobras produces 60,000 barrels of oil a day and 2 million cubic metres a day of natural gas in the basin.
Tomorrow, read the third article in the ANBA series about the development in Santos after the discovery of pre-salt oil.
*Translated by Mark Ament
