In a talk to reporters in Rio de Janeiro, December 10, the President of Petrobras Jose Sergio Gabrielli said that the Brazilian oil giant is shifting gears and will “focus on Campos basin instead of Santos basin where the salt layer is thicker.”

The executive pointed out that exploration in Campos mainly because of Jubarte field which is already a pre-salt producer with some 18,000 bpd of light oil is more feasible at the current low oil prices. Jubarte has all the installations added Gabrielli.

At Jubarte field the salt layer is 200 meters thick compared to the Santos basin pre-salt cluster, including Tupi with 5 and 8 billion boe of estimated reserves where the salt layers go to 2,000 meters thickness.

The first production from pre-salt layer, kicked-off this past Sept. 2 in Jubarte field, north of Campos basin, in 1,323 m (4,341 ft) water depth, some 77 km (48 mi) off the southern coast of Espírito Santo state on BC-60 block.

Petrobras was able to place the first well in the pre-salt layer into production less than two years after the reservoir was discovered.

For Gabrielli, "the first pre-salt oil in the Jubarte field will leverage the development of the other pre-salt layer wells the company has in Espirito Santo, Campos, and Santos basin. This well will teach us what to do in Tupi, Jupiter, and Carioca." Governmental authorities celebrated the beginning of a Long-Duration Test (LDT) with production of 10,000 b/d of 28º API light oil and 500,000 cm/d (17.7 MMcf/d) of associated gas. The fact that Petrobras already was producing 36,000 b/d of 17º API heavy oil from reserves estimated at 600 million boe in the post-salt layer in Jubarte field, allowed production in the pre-salt layer in Espírito Santo to be anticipated, says Petrobras.

The FPSO *P-34 *is moored 2.5 km (1.55 mi) from the 1-ESS-103A exploratory well, which discovered the oil in the pre-salt. Thus, most of the needed infrastructure already was in place and the distance from reservoirs to the coast is shorter than those of the pre-salt reservoirs in Santos basin.

The LDT for light oil that started last September is expected to last six months to a year, enough for the company to observe how pre-salt oil behaves, both in the reservoir and in the platform's process plant. Campos basin is responsible for some 80% of the some 2 million boe/day produced in the post-sal.The oil from Campos is mostly heavy. For this reason Brazil exports heavy crude, mostly to the US (around 65% of 500,000 bpd) and the rest to other countries and imports light oil, mostly from the Middle East to mix at its refineries for processing. Petrobras owns 11 of the 13 refineries in Brazil and they are not fully adapted to process heavy crude. This is one of the reasons for the great interest in pre-salt reservoirs which have massive reserves of light oil, besides the fact that light oil has more market value.

Separately, Brazil’s Mines and Minister Edison Lobao told Sandoil that he favors a change from the present concession regulatory model to a production-sharing agreement in Brazil’s pre-salt and the creation of a second state-owned oil company similar to Norway’s Petoro. He added however that “the creation of a state-owned company (to manage the reserves), has to my understanding, attracted much support within the government.”

The US, in particular, is interested in investing in oil production in a variety of geological environments including pre-salt formations, offshore and land opportunities. “In the next decade, the Brazil-US partnership may grow significantly in the energy and oil industries,” US Ambassador to Brazil Clifford Sobel said at a press conference.

Lobao also said that the government may tap Brazil’s international reserves, currently at $200 billion, for a loan to explore and develop its pre-salt reserves..

"The creation of a state-owned company (to manage the oil reserves), has to my understanding, attracted much support within the government,” Lobao said.Lobao added that pre-salt development would remain viable even if oil prices fall as low as $30 per barrel.

Lobao said that he favors a change from the present concession regulatory model to a production-sharing agreement in Brazil’s pre-salt and the creation of a second state-owned oil company similar to Norway’s Petoro. An inter-ministerial committee is expected to present the suggestions to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the next weeks.

Asked by Scandoil about the content of the suggestions the minister responded, “I don’t know yet because I only have one vote.” He added however that “the creation of a state-owned company (to manage the reserves), has to my understanding, attracted much support within the government.”

The Minister added that the $10 billion offer of a loan by China for Campos basin is being considered as well as a loanfrom the United Arab Emirtatesb (UAE) from its $1 trillion sovereign fund. Petrobras also announced that closed a financing agreement on December 10th in the amount of 75 billion Yen (approximately, $750 million). The 10-year loan is with a syndicate of Japanese banks.

Tags: Petrobras