MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

BG Group plans to invest 20 billion USD to develop oil and gas in Brazil

The president of British Gas Group in Brazil, Nelson Silva said this week that the company plans to invest 20 billion US dollars in the country until 2020.

“Brazil will be responsible for one third of the total oil and gas company in the world when the fields of pre-salt were produced - which will make Brazil the world's largest producer of the company”, said Silva.

BG Brazil and Petrobras formalized on Wednesday the creation of a joint venture to develop the Feed (Front End Engineering and Design - project engineering and design) with the objective of building a floating liquefaction of natural gas in the pre-salt the Santos Basin.

The company is a leading producer and supplier of gas in the world and is present in 22 countries. In Brazil, it is present in seven exploration blocks for oil and gas, with about 20% share of the fields that Petrobras operates in the pre-salt, including Tupi, Carioca, Parati, Guara, Iracema and Iara.

Meanwhile Brazil's lower house of Congress approved the law creating a state holding company to manage new projects in the country's recently discovered “sub-salt” oil reserves.

The creation of the company, called Petrosal, is one of four laws sent to Congress by President Lula da Silva aimed at boosting state control over the huge oil reserves. The president delivered the package of bills to Congress on September first and some elements of the reform are expected to meet strong opposition.

The package of bills includes steps to make the state-run oil company Petrobras the sole operator of new fields with a minimum 30% stake in all future projects in the new oil fields.

Under the Petrosal law, members of the company's administrative council will have four-year extendable mandates and will not be allowed to return to the oil sector within four months of leaving the post. Petrosal will also have to make its finances public on the Internet.