The two guests that took part on Wednesday (14) in the public hearing of the special committee that analyzes the creation of Petro-Sal (Bill 5939/09), showed opposing visions about the advantages and disadvantages of creating a new state-owned company to manage the agreements of oil and gas exploration in the pre-salt area.

While the president of the Brazilian Institute of Oil, Gas and Biofuels (IBP), João Carlos de Luca, a more restricted role for the future company, the President of the Petrobras Engineers Association (AEPET), Fernando Siqueira, showed enthusiasm for the extension of the presence of the State in the oil exploration.

Excessive interference
According to De Luca, the Union must coordinate the oil exploration and have the authority to audit costs. “But interfering in details, in every little detail on exploration, purchase or selling detail, it seems to me that is a bit excessive”, he defended.

“The companies invest, take risks, but do not have the right to decide anything.” This is not common in the business, it makes insecurity and it can bring negative consequences for the exploration in the Country”, stated.

He explains that in a field in which Petrobras has a share of 30% and other company has 70%, in the moment of a decision it would be 17% to Petrobras, 33% to the other company and 50% to Petro-Sal.

In the same way, if Petrobras and another company shared an oil field 50% each, the decision right would be of 25% for each company and the same 50% to Petro-Sal, because according to the proposal, this company always has 50% in the decisions.

The president of AEPET, Fernando Siqueira, stated that he believes that a company, which represents the true owners of the oil, “the Brazilian people”, should have a decision-making power in proportion to its involvement, which is the majority.

Sharing Model
According to Luca, for IBP it would not be necessary to modify the oil exploration legislation. But despite the companies not being enthusiasts for the sharing scheme, he does not see any problems in the use of this form, if the government and the Congress decide so.

For the engineer Fernando Siqueira, there is a great pressure from the multinational oil companies for Brazil to maintain the current oil exploration legislation or to refrain from making deep changes in the current regulatory mark. “Brazil will have a great power, and give up the control of this power is an immeasurable strategic mistake”, he defended.

Fernando Siqueira also discouraged the execution of auctions for the oil exploration areas, because, according to him, in this moment just this would increase the pressure of foreign companies and governments so that the Country hastens its production, "and this is not the best for Brazil".

Low Percentage
Siqueira, of AEPET, explained in his statement that the exporting countries received a share of 84%, percentage that reaches 90% for OPEP countries. The current national legislation assures 20%, and it can be increased to 40%, a value which he considers to be low.

“We hope that with the new legislation these values reach, at least, 80%, because the conditions are absolute different of the ones in the time of Law 9478/97”, he explained.

“When the current regulatory mark was implemented, the risks were substantial and the oil was limited, but now, with the pre-salt, there is not this limit and these risks”, he reasoned.

High quality
The engineer also stated that, with the pre-salt, the reserves of Brazil increase from 14 billion barrels to more than 90 billion, which is equivalent to something between the United Arab Emirates (97 billion) and Venezuela (87 billion).

He explained that the oil under the salt layer is among the ones of the highest quality in the world, because the salt layer acts as insulation so that the oil does not scatter, besides protecting the oil from microorganisms that consume the good oil and leave just the heavy crude oil. “Because it is pre-salt, this oil only suffers these two losses in its borders. Overall it has been preserved”, he said.

Capitalization
Deputy José Carlos Machado (DEM-SE) asked from where would come the resources for the pre-salt exploration, valuated in US$600 billion. Siqueira answered that these values were calculated by an European bank, but in fact, it should be a small percentage of this projection. Also in the engineer’s vision, Brazil has a great quantity of oil, and because of that, it would not be difficult to find a financing source to explore it.

Siqueira tried to deny the arguments that Petrobras would be unable to obtain resources for the exploration of the new areas or it would not be able to develop these new areas. “The Goldman Sachs bank stated that Petrobras is the most viable oil company in the world and shall be the one with the fastest growth when the fuel prices start to increase again” he stated.

De Luca said that despite not having a position about the Bill 5941/09, which is about the capitalization of Petrobras, he considers this to be the most important proposal among the ones under analysis.

Reporting – Juliano Pires
Edition – Newton Araújo
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Thamara Mello