Rio de Janeiro – The president of Brazil’s Petrobras, Graça Foster, has said this Tuesday (29th) that in the next few years, the company will invest more in oil production than exploration, which is the research and testing phase. The announcement was made at a lecture to oil and gas industry businessmen during the Offshore Technology Conference, in Rio de Janeiro.
"In the next five or six years, the "P" for production will matter more than the "E" for exploration,” the president said. The company is attempting to increase its reserves in a bid to offset the impact of fuel imports. In order to prevent inflation from rising, Petrobras sells cheaper, in Brazil, the fuel it imports from other countries at higher prices.
Graça Foster has announced that the company should double in size in the next few years as new post- and pre-salt wells enter into operation. She expects gas production and sales to increase domestically and abroad. “The current output is 171 million cubic metres of gas per day, and we are also working to double our refining capacity,” she added.
Apart from uncertainties in the external market, the executive believes that challenges facing the company in the next decade include building large production units, probes and ships using local raw material, as well as reducing the dearth of technically trained labour force. ”This is a major bottleneck,” she said. Another cause for concern is the demand for fossil fuels, in a 20-year scenario in which fossil fuels will become more widespread.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum