Divulgação Petrobras

 

Oil in the pre-salt layer

The special committee of the Chamber that examines the creation of the Social Fund of the pre-salt (Bills 5417/09 and 5940/09) approved on Wednesday (4), the report by Deputy Antonio Palocci (PT) which, among other measures, assigns to the Fund all the income raised by the Union from royalties and special participation of the blocks of pre-salt bid by December 31 this year.

In practice, the measure will anticipate the capitalization of the fund, because as soon as it is regulated by the Executive branch it will have this funding source. Palocci declined to estimate how much will come from this source, but he will have to provide a projection when the text is discussed by the Floor. This was the first of the four committees that review the regulatory framework of the pre-salt to complete its work.

The rapporteur did not agree to include other areas to be benefited by the pre-salt beyond those that had already been complied with - social development, poverty alleviation, education, culture, science and technology, as well as health and regional development, included by Palocci, and mitigation and adaptation to climate change, rather than environmental sustainability, as established by the original text. During the voting deputies presented amendments to include areas like welfare, sports, land reform, public security and national defense, but the rapporteur has restricted “temporary” the application of resources, indicating that others areas might be included in the future.

Royalties
Regarding the inclusion of the royalties from the blocks already tendered, Palocci argued that "the ministries already have royalties and special participation of all that has happened [in the concession model] and they will have all that will happen [in the sharing model]. So there are plenty of resources for these ministries to carry out whatever is necessary”. He noted, however, that the resources of states and municipalities are fully guaranteed.

Palocci also allows in the text that the government assign to the fund the extra money that currently goes to specific organs of the federal administration. "If, for instance, the National Petroleum Agency has received R$ 600 million and spends R$ 580 million, this surplus of $ 20 million could be assigned to the fund," he said.

The rapporteur has maintained its original proposal to authorize the use of a portion of the principal amount of the fund to investment, but he changed the initial wording, which limited the alternative to the first five years of funding. By the approved wording, the government may use these amounts "in the initial stage of formation of the fund. At other times, only the interest payments on the capital will be used.

Report - Rodrigo Bittar
Edition - Marcos Rossi
Translation – Adriana Resende/RX