Petroleo Brasileiro SA-Petrobras - PBR - Isin US71654V1017

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Petrobras Partners with Fugro for Pioneering Remote ROV Survey

Dutch offshore survey firm Fugro and Brazil's national oil company Petrobras have completed what they say is the country's first-ever remote subsea inspection survey.

Fugro said that the technology trial was carried out with the aim of minimizing risk and improving sustainability during inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) projects.

Fugro used a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed from the Fugro Aquarius vessel to conduct the survey.

Office-based personnel piloted the ROV from an operations center in Aberdeen, Scotland, instead of from the vessel itself.

"The approach was informed by Fugro’s remote ROV piloting experience in other parts of the world and was accomplished using a high-speed datalink provided by Petrobras," Fugro said.

For future projects, remote ROV piloting may help Petrobras limit the number of crew deployed to the field, resulting in safer operations with a reduced carbon footprint, the company added.

"This landmark project represents a significant achievement in our ongoing work with Petrobras to support safer and more sustainable offshore energy production in Brazil," said John Chatten, Business Development Manager for Fugro's marine operations in Brazil.

"As the country’s foremost provider of ROV services, we look forward to implementing this approach on future surveys and to bringing additional remote and autonomous innovations to the region."

http://www.oedigital.com/news/503628-pe ... rov-survey

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Petrobras CEO Says He’s Ready to Be World’s Last Oil Producer

(Bloomberg) -- Jean Paul Prates, the head of Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, isn’t deterred by the world’s energy transition. He says Latin America’s largest producer should keep increasing fossil fuel output for decades to come.

“We will get market share,” Prates, chief executive officer of Petrobras, said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro. “We may be the last to produce oil in the world.”

His assertion of Brazil’s ambition echoes the policy of other oil exporters like Saudi Arabia, who argue that investing in fossil-fuel expansion is compatible with a global ambition to reach net zero carbon emissions. Many, including the International Energy Agency, disagree, claiming there’s no room for anyone to target increased crude output if the world is going to reach its climate goals.

The world has found itself in a tight place as limited fossil fuel supply amid a lack of investment sparked a global energy crisis that raised consumer bills and worsened global inflation. Even leaders who position themselves as fighters against climate change such as US President Joe Biden have called for increases in oil output to help tame rising costs.

Over the last 20 years, Brazil has emerged as a major oil producer, diverging from many of its Latin American peers. Drillers have exploited giant offshore oil fields, known as pre-salt, because the crude is trapped under a geological layer of salt. Petrobras operates most of those fields with international companies such as Shell Plc holding minority stakes.

Appointed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the start of his third term earlier this year, Prates said that the oil production will remain the top priority. Investment in wind power and other renewable technologies at Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, will be modest in comparison.

Prates’ comments may ease concerns among some minority investors that the new administration would prioritize non-core investment projects over the oil and gas business.

Crude Output

While Lula has championed the fight against climate change, pledging to slow deforestation in the Amazon, he’s also been a supporter of Brazil’s oil industry. The boom in production provided growing tax revenue during Lula’s first two terms, helping to finance his ambitious social spending.

Brazil’s output is set to reach a record 3.4 million barrels a day this year and will keep growing until 2030. After that, the country will need new discoveries to maintain and grow production.

“We came out very late to this game as a big producer, but we have to keep the ball rolling,” said Prates, 54, who was a senator in Lula’s Workers’ Party before his appointment.

He said the priority will be exploiting existing finds in the pre-salt areas and finding fresh ones, while looking to open up new basins in other parts of Brazil, including the so-called equatorial margin in the far north of the country. That region has similar geology as areas off nearby Guyana, where Exxon Mobil Corp. has found billions of barrels.

Read More: Nation in Crosshairs of Climate Change Is Getting Rich on Oil

Petrobras is ready to start exploration drilling in the region, but is awaiting approval from regulators. Its proximity to the mouth of the Amazon river has made it a controversial location for drilling and drawn concern from Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva.

“The state of Brazil will have to decide if that goes on or not,” Prates said. “All we are trying to do is to find oil.” If Petrobras gets the go-ahead, drilling could start on an exploration well as soon as April, he said.

Read More: Oil Rig That’s Treading Water Is Costing Brazil $1 Million a Day

Petrobras will look at investments in offshore wind because the company has experience executing big projects in Brazil’s Atlantic Ocean. It’s exploring partnerships with European oil majors, including Norway’s Equinor, he said.

“This is an environment we already know, and we have in Brazil undoubtedly the best environment for investment in offshore wind in the world because the climate is favorable,” he said. The rest of the Petrobras push into the energy transition will involve two areas where it already has expertise: carbon capture and biofuels.

Prates said Petrobras — which paid a record dividend last year, driven by higher oil prices and a wide-ranging divestment program — should strike a better balance between channeling cash to shareholders, including the Brazilian state, and investment.

“We should have a more balanced view of that, without neglecting the big attractiveness of having big dividends,” he said.

--With assistance from Daniel Carvalho.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/petrobra ... 00210.html

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Petrobras Starts Process to Charter Two FPSOs for Sergipe Deepwater Project

Brazilian oil firm Petrobras has started the contracting process for the chartering of two floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels for the Sergipe Deepwater Project (SEAP), in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, about 100 km off the coast.

Petrobras said that the two FPSOs would expand the availability of national gas, besides opening a new production frontier in the Northeast region. Each platform (SEAP I and SEAP II) and will have the capacity to process up to 120 thousand barrels of oil per day (bpd).

"The oil in the region is light, considered to be of good quality, between 38 and 41 degrees API - and, therefore, of higher commercial value. Together, the two units will have the potential to offer up to 18 million cubic meters of gas per day," Petrobras said.

"The Sergipe Águas Profundas project stands out for its expressive reserves, with potential to boost the supply of natural gas in the country and reduce our dependence on imports of this input," said Petrobras CEO Jean Paul Prates.

"Another advantage is that gas is the crucial fuel for energy transition. Not only for its versatility of application - as an energy source for the most diverse industries - and predictability of delivery, but mainly for its efficiency in emissions", he added.

Substantial Gas Volumes

Petrobras said that, with a substantial volume of gas, the project opens a new horizon for investments, bringing a series of opportunities for the sector and for the states of Sergipe and Alagoas.

"Furthermore, it will enable a new technological milestone in the country: the implementation of a production project at water depths above 2,500 meters (reaching up to 3 thousand meters), incorporating state-of-the-art innovations," Petrobras said.

"The two FPSOs will be chartered units and, in their technical specifications, Petrobras used advanced solutions - such as improvements in the treatment and injection system for the water produced in the reservoir, and new technologies with greater efficiency in reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Petrobras said.

In December 2021, seven deepwater fields in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin were declared commercially available: Agulhinha, Agulhinha Oeste, Budião, Budião Noroeste, Budião Sudeste, Cavala, and Palombeta.

The SEAP I project covers the fields of Agulhinha, Agulhinha Oeste, Cavala, and Palombeta, located in the BM-SEAL-10 and BM-SEAL-11 concessions. Petrobras is the operator of the BM-SEAL-11 concessions - with 60% stakes, in partnership with IBV Brasil Petróleo LTDA (40%) - and BM-SEAL-10, where it holds 100% stakes.

The SEAP II project covers reservoirs belonging to the Budião, Budião Noroeste, and Budião Sudeste fields, located in the BM-SEAL-4, BM-SEAL-4A, and BM-SEAL-10 concessions, respectively.

Petrobras is the operator of concessions BM-SEAL-4 - with 75% stakes in partnership with ONGC Campos Limitada (25%) - and BM-SEAL-4A and BM-SEAL-10, where it holds 100% stakes.

http://www.oedigital.com/news/504112-pe ... er-project

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Petrobras Contemplates Plan B Amid License Delays for Amazon River Basin Drilling

Brazil's Petrobras may move a rig it has installed to drill at the mouth of the Amazon River Basin to another location if it does not obtain a long-awaited environmental license to start operations there, an executive said on Monday.

The remarks from Exploration and Production Executive Director Joelson Mendes come after technical staff at local environmental agency Ibama in April recommended the rejection of Petrobras' request to drill in the area.

"We are ready to drill, but a permit is necessary," Mendes told reporters on the sidelines of the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston. "We are waiting for the permission."

Brazil's government will have the final say on the matter, so the company has been saying it will wait for its decision.

Mendes said that if the permission is not granted, the state-run oil giant had the "plan B" of moving the rig to the Potiguar Basin in northeastern Brazil, noting it would be "very easy" to move the rig from one location to another.

"We have an alternative," Mendes said, adding that if the change is made the Pitu Oeste well would be the first one to receive the rig.

Petrobras told Reuters in a statement after Mendes's remarks that it would look to drill the Pitu Oeste and Anhanga wells in the state of Rio Grande do Norte if it fails to obtain the permit.

Those wells, however, would also require Ibama's clearance to be drilled, it added.

(Reuters - Reporting by Mariana Parraga; Additional reporting by Marta Nogueira in Rio de Janeiro; Editing by Steven Grattan)

http://www.oedigital.com/news/504878-pe ... n-drilling

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Petrobras Q1 Oil Output Falls 4% on Asset Sales

Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras said this week that its crude oil production during the first quarter fell 4% compared to the same period last year, citing the sale of some assets and the natural decay of old fields.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, pumped 2.141 million barrels per day (bpd) between January and March, down from 2.231 million bpd in the year ago period.

Including natural gas output, the Brazilian oil giant produced a daily average of 2.676 million barrels of oil equivalent in the first quarter.

In comparison with the fourth quarter, however, oil output rose 1.4%, Petrobras pointed out, boosted by pre-salt production.

The Rio de Janeiro-based company said around 77% of its total oil output in the period came from Brazil's pre-salt fields on the country's southeastern Atlantic coast.

Production on post-salt deep and ultra-deep waters, on the other hand, fell 18% from the first three months of last year, mainly due to the shutdown of two platforms and the sale of oil fields Albacora Leste and Papa-Terra, Petrobras said, also mentioning the natural decline in production.

Those effects were partially offset by the start of production of four new wells in Campos Basin, the firm added.

Sales of oil, gas and derivatives came in line with the previous year, at 3.06 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The total utilization rate of Petrobras' refining park hit 85%, one percentage point below the previous quarter, the company said, pointing to scheduled shutdowns in three refineries.

(Reuters - Reporting by Peter Frontini and Marta Nogueira; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

http://www.oedigital.com/news/504898-pe ... sset-sales

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Petrobras Will Only Build Part of Offshore Oil Platforms in Brazil, Top Executive Says

Petrobras will not do all of its shipbuilding work in Brazil, a top executive said, dashing industry hopes the state-controlled oil firm would review its awarding process to spur job creation.

Steel groups, shipping unions and 14 other organizations which backed the election of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are pressing the government for more made-in-Brazil contracts from Petrobras.

The president has said in speeches Petrobras would "reactivate the oil and gas industry", and "resume building ships" in the country. Petrobras will help revitalize Brazil's shipbuilding industry by awarding more contracts locally to dismantle old oil platforms and to build topside modules for new vessels, but not to build hulls or entire platforms, engineering head Carlos Travassos told Reuters.

"No country does the entire FPSO," Travassos said in Houston, using the acronym for the floating platforms able to store and offload oil. Brazil's shipping industry "has a good opportunity" to grow, "but needs to bet on its callings," he said.

Petrobras' shipbuilding strategy puts a test to Lula's ability to use the company to create jobs -- a strategy he used in his first two presidential terms, not without controversy and oil production delays.

The industry groups claim shipbuilding jobs in the country fell by 80% to 15,000 since Lula was in power 15 years ago. In an April 26 letter to the government, they said Petrobras now awards as much as 80% of its offshore contracts to companies in China and Singapore.

They also said most of Petrobras' contracts are awarded to only three Brazilian shipyards: EBR, Keppel Fels and Jurong, with the last two units of Singaporean firms.

And the groups demanded Petrobras raise the made-in-Brazil work for platforms including those for Albacora, SEAP, Sepia, and Atapu fields.

"The local content (requirements) we have today cannot be met by the market. So it does not make sense to raise it," Travassos said. Building modules requires smaller construction sites and can more easily be replicated. Also, the work force expertise is transferable to building refining, biodiesel or hydrogen plants.

"Once Brazil qualifies itself to build modules, it will have a much better opportunity to perpetuate the business instead of learning how to make FPSO hulls and compete with Korea, China," he said.

FPSO hulls are highly customized, and any country would take years of building a few before establishing a steady production line, he said. "We see a very good opportunity for Brazil's (shipping) industry, but it is not in FPSO hulls," Travassos said.

(Reporting by Sabrina Valle; additional reporting by Marta Nogueira; Editing by Kim Coghill)

http://www.oedigital.com/news/504919-pe ... utive-says

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Petrobras' Anna Nery FPSO Starts Production

Brazilian oil firm Petrobras said Monday that the FPSO Anna Nery started production on Sunday, May 7, 2023, in the Campos Basin.

The FPSO is part of the revitalization project of the Marlim and Voador fields, which will produce the post-salt reservoirs and Brava, located in the pre-salt of the two fields.

The unit can produce up to 70,000 barrels of oil daily and process 4 million m³ of gas.

Jean Paul Prates, CEO of Petrobras, said:"This is the largest project in the world in the recovery of mature assets in the offshore industry. Through it, we will increase production, maintain jobs, and open an important learning and knowledge front for other similar projects throughout Brazil."

The Anna Nery FPSO and the Anita Garibaldi FPSO make up the first major revitalization project for mature fields in the Campos Basin.

"The deployment of these two new production systems, appropriate to the mature field exploration format, provides operational continuity to the Marlim and Voador fields, increasing production to an average of 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), maintaining jobs and support services, and opening an important learning and knowledge front for other revitalization projects," Petrobras said.

The FPSO Anna Nery, supplied by Malaysia's Yinson, is anchored in a water depth of 927 meters and interconnected to 32 wells, with peak production scheduled for 2025.

The Marlim and Voador revitalization project will contribute to the recovery of the Campos Basin production, currently at about 560,000 boed. The projection for the basin's production is 900,000 boed in 2027.

http://www.oedigital.com/news/504921-pe ... production

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Brazil's Petrobras to pay $5 billion in dividends, but hints at changes

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras said on Thursday its board approved dividends later this year of about 24.7 billion reais ($4.94 billion), but also hinted at future changes in its payout policy.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the firm is formally known, said in a filing with regulators that it will pay dividends of 1.893577 reais per share in two installments on August 18 and September 20.

The Brazilian oil giant noted that the payouts are in line with its current shareholder remuneration policy, which allows distributions to investors of 60% of the difference between operating cash flow and investments.

However, Petrobras added that its board also determined that the company's management should prepare a proposal to "improve" its dividend policy, including possibly re-purchasing shares.

The proposal will be submitted for the board's consideration by the end of July, Petrobras added.

Last year, Petrobras paid out nearly 216 billion reais in dividends, making it a cash cow for investors, but prompting criticism from leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has argued for bigger investments instead.

($1 = 5.0033 reais)

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Peter Frontini; Editing by David Alire Garcia)

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/brazi ... 44771.html

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Brazil's Petrobras scraps international price peg

Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras said Tuesday it has ended its policy of pegging fuel prices to the international market, an overhaul promised by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that had initially caused investor jitters.

Petrobras, whose prices essentially determine how much Brazilians pay at the pump, said it would still set them using "market references."

But it said in a statement that the announcement "puts an end to the mandatory subordination (of prices) to the import parity price" in US dollars.

Veteran leftist Lula, who took office for a third term in January, had vowed during his election campaign to "Brazilianize" the company's pricing policy, saying the old policy aimed to "please investors, to the detriment of the Brazilian people."

Petrobras investors had resisted changes to the policy, which helped Brazil's biggest company deliver record profits of $36 billion last year thanks to the global surge in fuel prices.

Petrobras followed up the policy change by announcing hefty price cuts almost immediately, of 12.6 percent for gasoline, 12.7 percent for diesel and 21.4 percent for cooking gas.

"With this commercial strategy, Petrobras will be more efficient and competitive," the company's chief executive, Jean Paul Prates, said in the statement.

"We will continue to be the market reference, without abdicating the (company's) competitive advantages," added Prates, a former senator named to the post by Lula in January.

Markets welcomed the announcement, with analysts saying investors had feared a more radical overhaul of the international price peg policy, which had been in place since 2016.

Petrobras shares rose more than four percent on the Sao Paulo stock exchange before settling back to gains of around two percent.

"The market was expecting something much worse, a direct intervention," said oil industry analyst Israel Rodrigues, of Genial Investimentos.

Prates told a news conference there would be "no intervention" by the government in price-setting.

The company's competitiveness and profitability "are guaranteed," he said.

Brazilians have suffered recently as the Ukraine war drove international oil prices to multi-year highs, triggering painful inflation that became a central issue in Lula's election battle last year against far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/brazils-petr ... 38756.html

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Petrobras (PBR) Identifies Hydrocarbons in Aram Block Well

Petrobras (PBR), the state-owned oil and gas company of Brazil, claimed to have discovered the presence of hydrocarbons in the Santos Basin pre-salt, in an appraisal well in the Aram block. The well is located at a water depth of 1,979 meters, 260 km from the city of Santos-SP.

According to Petrobras, the well is currently being drilled and the oil-bearing interval was verified using wireline logging and fluid samples, which will be later characterized through laboratory analysis. The data obtained is likely to help assess and lead the potential next exploratory efforts in the region.

PBR reported that the consortium will continue drilling the well to the anticipated depth and determine the conditions of the discovered reservoirs. The Aram block comprises a significant asset for exploring the remaining pre-salt potential, notably in the Santos basin.

Additionally, the well delivered a fluid of exceptional quality, confirming minimal contamination levels. This revelation increases the likelihood of extending the accumulation found in this block by the leading well.

The Aram block was acquired in March 2020, during the sixth bidding round of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, with Pré-Sal Petróleo SA serving as manager. PBR is the operator of the block and holds a whopping 80% stake. CNPC owns the remaining 20%.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/petro ... 11688.html