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Companies in the sector are looking for the best alternative to develop reserves and make Brazil’s gas market more competitive

The challenges in monetizing natural gas in the face of growing demand in the country were widely debated on the first day of OTC Brasil in the panel “Challenges to monetize Natural Gas from High GOR Offshore Fields”. Representatives from Petrobras, Equinor and Repsol Sinopec, which are involved in major natural gas projects under development in Brazil’s pre-salt layer, discussed strategies to enable what important segments of society are seeking: an increase in the supply of the input to boost and further establish the New Gas Market.

Bruno Moczydlower, Petrobras’ executive manager for reservoirs, said that the company is committed to increasing gas production for the Brazilian market and pointed out that, as of next year, the Rota 3 project, developed to expand the flow of natural gas from the pre-salt Santos Basin, will already be operating. By 2028, two other large-capacity projects, the Sergipe Deepwater Project (SEAP) and the Raia Project, through the BM-C-33 consortium, should also be operating. Together, the three projects will be able to deliver a capacity of over 50 million cubic meters per day.

According to Thiago Penna, Director of Equinor’s Raia Project, which is under development and has a flow capacity of approximately 16 million cubic meters per day, the challenges of natural gas production can be overcome through innovation and efficiency in reducing carbon emissions. “Our projects need to be robust financially and in terms of carbon emissions. In this sense, we have introduced several innovations. We will have one of the most efficient and innovative FPSOs in the world”.

Andres Sannazzaro, gas marketing and public relations manager at Repsol Sinopec Brazil, recalled the need for predictability when making long-term decisions and stressed that the alternatives for monetizing gas include production itself, distance from the consumer market and the presence or absence of associated gas.

New challenges at the Pre-salt

Another challenge the national oil industry faces is related to Brazil’s pre-salt layer. Companies and suppliers have sought to develop new technologies to achieve more efficient production. Thanks to the complexity of the geological environment, the use of more advanced innovations plays a key role in production in the region.

For Raimon Alfaro, Geophysics Research & Development Leader at TotalEnergies, geophysical technologies are key to unlocking the potential of the pre-salt. Alex Martinez, Senior Geophysicist at ExxonMobil, added that technology needs to be developed for each environment in question.

Jorge Luis Lopez, from Shell, said that new seismic technologies are the company’s strategy to mitigate the risks for reservoir recovery.

Diego Garcia, from Petrobras, highlighted the oil company’s strategy in the operation of the Mero field, whose development plan involves the deployment of four FPSOs that will come into operation by 2025 and will together produce 180,000 barrels per day, raising the field’s recovery factor to somewhere between 1% and 3%.

Innovation and entrepreneurship

How can we promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the energy sector, which values safety in its operations and still operates according to traditional project models? What is the future of work in the sector? These were the main questions addressed in the iUP Technical Sessions panels on the first day of OTC 2023.

Cleusa Araújo, Shell’s Energy Transition Manager, stressed the importance of the ESG agenda in driving innovation. “It is a trend that drives all our actions”. Mariana Kobayashi, from Total Energies, pointed out that one of the biggest challenges in innovating in the industry is safety. For Matteo Cervelli, Innovation Manager at Vibra, innovation must be connected to the business strategy. “There’s no point in inventing something that does not meet the needs of those who pay the bill”.  Ricardo Yogui, from PUC-RJ, warned that “133 million new jobs will be generated from technology and innovation, but others will disappear in the next few years”.

Executive Dialogues

At the Executive Dialogues session, Roberto Ardenghy, president of IBP, welcomed Bruno Chabas, CEO of SBM Offshore, who stressed the importance of society understanding how essential energy is to people’s lives. “With this understanding, it will be possible to move forward with the energy transition at the right pace, while maintaining safety.” According to Chabas, the company plans to reduce its emissions by around 30% over the next few years. “Carbon capture is one of our main focuses. The scenario the world will have in 10 years will basically depend on new technologies.”

Roberto Ardenghy also hosted Yann Cottart, vice president of Subsea7 Brasil. The executive explained that sustainability is one of the company’s main values and that they are working to further improve their operations. “We are committed to reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2045, implementing changes and solutions currently available and introducing new cleaner technologies as they become commercially available at scale in the market,” said Cottart.

OTC Brasil runs until Thursday in Rio de Janeiro. The 2023 edition has master sponsorship from Petrobras; platinum sponsorship from Shell and TotalEnergies; gold sponsorship from Ambipar, BP, Chevron, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Prio and RepsolSinopec Brasil; silver sponsorship from Enauta, Porto do Açu and TechnipFMC; bronze sponsorship from Corio Generation, Perbras, SBM Offshore, Tenaris, Tivit, Quorum Software and OceanPact; Decarbonization & Technology Arena sponsorship from Radix, ASME, TESS, GE, Huisman, Innovation Norway, PPSA, Bratecc, Shape and Wams; support as official airline operator from United Airlines; official carbon offset partnership from AMBIFY; ApexBrasil as the International Business partner; Blumar as the official tourism agency; B&T as the official foreign exchange broker; and partners such as Abimaq, Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce, RedePetro ES, SPE UNIFEI and Norwegian Energy Partners. The event also has the support of the Federal Government.

Service: OTC Brazil 2023

Date: October 24 to 26, 2023

Venue: ExpoMag, Rio de Janeiro

Information on the last available tickets here.