OTC 2014: BRATECC looks at local content challenges for offshore Brazil

May 7, 2014
The Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce has hosted BRATECC Offshore 2014 to coincide with the Offshore Technology Conference.

Offshore staff

HOUSTON – The Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce has hosted BRATECC Offshore 2014 to coincide with the Offshore Technology Conference. The title of this year’s presentation was “Libra First Year: Planning the Next Generation of Presalt Development.”

One common theme around the event was the issue of meetinglocal content requirements.

The first presentation was by Oswaldo Pedrosa, president, Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A. (PPSA), the state-owned member of theLibra consortium, who discussed the new regulations and PPSA’s role in exploration and production operations in the presalt.

“One challenge for PPSA is how to conciliate between the fasttrack presalt development projects and the high local content requirements in an area of tight supply,” said Pedrosa.

The exploration and development phases of offshore Santos basin projects in the presalt reservoirs have aggressive time schedules to meet production targets, but the local engineering/construction/shipyard/infrastructure as it now stands is not expected to be able to meet the local content demands in the same timeframes.

Libra field development is going to put heavy demands on industry, said Anelise Lara, executive manager for Libra PSC (production sharing contract) at Petrobras.

Between now and 2030, Libra is scheduled to have a number of extended well tests to define the huge reservoir, a pilot project to prove out the production system design, and 11 installed deepwater subsea production systems with FPSO support. The amount of local content required for each step varies with the timing, exact tasks, and volume of production, she said, but regardless getting the required local content for goods and services along the way is going to be a challenge.

The local content concern was echoed by Paulo Alonso, executive coordinator for Prominp and local content advisor to the president of Petrobras.

“The most challenging aspect of presalt exploration and development is how to fasttrack the work within the limits of available local content,” said Alonso.

He said Petrobras needs and wants the local content, but needs it on a competitive and sustainable basis. Brazilian businesses partnering with foreign companies is the most likely way to meet those demands, he said, and Petrobras will document and request variances to the rules only as a last resort.

5/7/14