MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazilian banks and funds create company to build deep-water rigs for Petrobras
Sete Brazil is to build seven rigs thus alleviating Petrobras financial burden A group of Brazilian banks and funds have created a company called Sete Brasil that will build seven deep-water rigs for state-run oil company Petrobras offshore exploration campaign, Petrobras announced on Monday.
Sete Brasil was designed to help meet Brazil's goal of building drilling rigs domestically while taking some of the financial burden of their construction off Petrobras.
Investors in the firm include banks Santander, Bradesco, BTG Pactual and Caixa Economica Federal, as well as Brazilian pension funds such as Previ, Petrobras said in a statement. Petrobras will own a stake of less than 10% in the operation.
The rigs are due to be in operation by 2015.
Petrobras is commissioning 28 deep-water drilling rigs to be built in Brazil as part of efforts to spur the local oil services industry and the expansion of domestic shipyards.
Acquiring those rigs is a key part of its five-year, 224 billion US dollars business plan that is focused on the deep-water offshore region known as the sub-salt -- believed to hold as much as 100 billion barrels of oil buried beneath the ocean's surface.
However critics say building the rigs locally will boost Petrobras costs and slow development of the offshore reserves.
Petrobras also revealed on Monday that during the first quarter it had quickened the pace of drilling in the offshore Santos Basin.
During the first quarter, the company drilled eight wells in the Santos Basin, home to the vast region known as the sub-salt. That compares to a total of 20 wells drilled in the area between 2007 and 2010, said Santos Basin, Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa.
“That gives an idea of the rhythm of growth that we have in the Santos Basin,” Barbassa told reporters during an earnings presentation. “We have six rigs working there now, and by the end of the year we're going to increase that number”.
Petrobras plans to nearly double oil output in Brazil by 2020 with ambitious plans to develop the sub-salt.
The area has become a new frontier for energy exploration even though its technically challenging fields lie at depths of as much as 7 kilometres below the ocean's surface.
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Read all comments“However critics say building the rigs locally will boost Petrobras costs and slow development of the offshore reserves.”
May 17th, 2011 - 06:38 pm 0Lisez:
“However venal critics that are paid lobby money by foreign enterprises say building the rigs locally will boost Petrobras costs and slow development of the offshore reserves.”
“However critics say building the rigs locally will boost Petrobras costs and slow development of the offshore reserves.”
May 17th, 2011 - 07:05 pm 0You can imagine which economic system they were studying and where. Perhaps Chicago and massachusetts? Or just drank the “koolaid” served by their northern neo-liberal friends.
It actually probly does slow development, and raise costs for Petrobras specifically, but other international companies have less incentive, and poorer records, when it comes to doing the job PROPERLY, without spilling it all over the coasts, for example. Also, Petrobras reaps other rewards by keeping all it's business within Brazil, from maintaining a higher image standard at home, to having ease of business/regulation and taxation with the government. Upsides AND downsides, like everything in life. It certainly benefits the overall Brazilian economy too.
May 18th, 2011 - 06:32 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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