The Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan) launched today (11), at its headquarters, in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, the Yearbook of Petroleum in Rio 2022. The document gathers qualified information to guide companies in the sector in their decisions to investments, as well as preparing their business plans in the state and in the country.
According to Firjan’s Oil, Gas and Naval Strategic Content coordinator, Fernando Montera, Rio de Janeiro, the largest producing state in the country, ends up being the place that most attracts the attention of investors. The analysis of data from the first semester reveals that it was the only one that had a significant increase in production.
While the states had an estimated drop of 15% in total, Rio de Janeiro increased production by 130,000 barrels/day, increasing by 5.5% in the first six months of this year. In Brazil, growth was 1.5%
Alagoas also presented an expansion in production in the semester, although more modest, of 400 barrels a day. “It was an increase in production sufficient to compensate for the drop in other states and also to increase the country’s total production”.
“Brazil is currently experiencing an oil supercycle. The price exceeds the range of R$ 600, a value never seen before in the country. This reflects, in revenue, in government actions, in investment appetite,” Montera told Brazil Agency.
exploratory activity
The yearbook highlights the drop in exploratory activity offshore (at sea). Compared to 2012 and 2022 data, there was a 90% reduction in the drilling of wells for exploratory purposes, which are seeking new oil reserves, indicated the coordinator.
“If activity reduces, this compromises the replacement of reserves in the long term”. In 2012, the relationship showed that reserves could be sustained for more than 20 years. Today, that relationship has dropped to about 13 years. Montera commented, however, that a positive side of the downturn is that the areas that are being tendered have a lower exploratory risk.
Carbon
Oil companies work to decarbonize production processes. The country has a large share of renewable energies, or clean energies, in the energy matrix. As the national energy is mostly clean, the supplier in Brazil and Rio de Janeiro has a less polluting production process than the world average.
“Brazil emits six times less than China, 4.8 times less than South Korea and 4.6 times less than the world average. This is a competitive advantage of the Brazilian and Rio de Janeiro supplier, which needs to be highlighted. It’s good to look at our competitive capacity and show the world that, in Brazil, you buy a product that pollutes less”.
The coordinator pointed out that environmental, social and corporate governance issues are currently driving investment.
Pre-salt
In addition to having large volumes of oil and gas, the Brazilian pre-salt region is highly productive. Another positive factor is that companies end up demanding less investment there to produce the same amount of oil from other fields.
According to Montera, it used to take 10 to 15 wells to fill a platform. Today, in the pre-salt, with five wells it is already possible to reach the maximum production capacity, because they are reservoirs with a higher productivity level.
The pre-salt represents 75% of national oil production and Rio de Janeiro has been expanding its role in national production, reaching 83% in 2022 and returning to a similar level in 2010. Most of the pre-salt exploratory areas are located in the geographic limits of the Rio de Janeiro seas.
Competitiveness
The acting president of Firjan, Luiz Césio Caetano, defended the need to explain the competitive differential of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro.
“The oil that Rio de Janeiro produces is of better quality, has a cheaper production cost, is more productive, the industry emits less than other locations in the world. We need to emphasize that it is capable of meeting (demand) and attracting more investment. We need a long-term state policy that looks at competitive differentials and manages to improve other issues that are not yet competitive.”
Caetano also highlighted the need to review the sharing model currently adopted in Brazil, returning to the previous concession model, in the case of an auction of new exploratory areas in the pre-salt that require more investments and do not present the same level of productivity, it is one of the actions that should be considered.
It also indicated the importance of suppliers and claimants talking to understand the gaps (gaps) of competitiveness that can be solved without the need for government action. Firjan has a program called the Oil, Gas and Naval Opportunities Network, which has this objective.
