Firms Line Up to Get in on Brazil Oil 'Gold Rush'
BRAZIL: September 19, 2008
RIO DE JANEIRO - The discovery of huge offshore oil reserves has made Brazil
one of the world's hottest energy markets, with firms that make everything
from planning software for wells to floating "hotels" for platform workers
clamoring for a piece of the action.
More than 35,000 people are attending this week's Rio Oil and Gas
conference, the first since state firm Petrobras shocked the oil world last
November by announcing the world's second-biggest oil find in 20 years.
As financial markets crashed around the world, executives here were busily
making deals and bubbling with enthusiasm at the prospect of working with
Petrobras to exploit the oil trapped below a thick salt layer underneath the
ocean floor -- something that could cost up to US$600 billion.
"Being with Petrobras is a bit like being in the first gold rush in the US,"
said Mark Grills, a software engineer for British firm QuickWells, whose
product helps engineers plan the complex internal make-up of wells.
"It's like you're discovering oil all over again."
Analysts estimate the subsalt reserves could contain up to 80 billion
barrels of oil, catapulting Brazil into the top 10 oil producers.
Despite uncertainty over government plans to take greater control over the
finds, falling oil prices, and global equipment shortages, executives said
it was clear that Petrobras was committed to spending big in the coming
years to achieve a goal of more than 1 million barrels per day of subsalt
output by 2017.
Petrobras has leased about 80 percent of the world's deepest-drilling
offshore rigs and plans to hire 14,000 engineers and other specialists in
the next three years as it prepares for a new era that could transform
Brazil's economy.
Alisdair Harrison said his UK ship services firm, Trident Marine Services,
had been operating in Brazil for just three weeks but had already teamed up
with a local marine electronics company. It is also in talks to help build
three rigs, nine ships, and a floating hotel for workers.
"The speed is astounding," he said. "They (Petrobras) are overestimating --
they will not achieve their targets, there's a world shortage of equipment.
But a line has been drawn in the sand and they are making commitments now."
TECHNOLOGY PUSH
Harrison's firm is an example of how the subsalt investments are expected to
spread across the industry, beyond the platform rigs and drilling equipment
needed to tap the oil up to 7 km (4.3 miles) below the surface.
Grills' is another -- he hopes Petrobras will buy QuickWells' software
partly as a training tool for engineers, whose dwindling numbers are a
concern for the industry.
The technological challenge of working at massive depths is pushing
innovation at firms seeking a role in the subsalt bonanza. Houston-based FMC
Technologies is having to boost the water-pressure resistance and
anti-corrosion properties of its deep-sea equipment that provides the link
between the seabed and the platforms.
It sees the demand resulting from subsalt to double its production of
"Christmas trees" -- well-heads that sit on the ocean floor -- to up to 150
a year from 70-80 now.
"You really have to get your supply chain well-prepared to cope with this
demand. We need more companies supporting the oil industry," said Jose Mouro,
sales director of FMC in Brazil.
Italian firm Prysmian is developing cables for use at 3,000 meters (9,800
feet) of water depth, up from the current 2,000 meter limit. The firm
announced a US$135 million contract from Petrobras this week as well as
plans to invest US$110 million in a new factory in Brazil.
"If half of what we heard happens we will need one more plant, we will have
to improve our capacity," said Darcio Rossi Jr, the manager of Prysmian's
oil business unit in Brazil. (Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Story by Stuart Grudgings
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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