Divulgação Petrobras

 

The pre-salt layer

Engineer defends the production sharing regime to increase the Union’s income with the oil, to assure the best management of stored resources and to define the production rate

The president of the Company of Electrical Research, Maurício Tolmasquim, who took part in the group in charged to elaborate the proposes of the Executive with the regulatory framework of pre-salt, reasoned on this Wednesday that the options adopted in the proposals - the PLs 5938/09, 5939/09, 5940/09 and 5941/09 - have a logical sequence.

Because of the low risk presented by the pre-salt, the sharing system (between companies and Union) in the oil exploration imposes itself as the best choice, he said. In this option, according to him, the world model is a sole operating company, this way the proposals must be jointly analyzed.

He highlighted that the current concession model was defined in a different context, in which the oil price was low and the Country was in a great debt – it was an oil importer -, and when prevailed a State reduction philosophy. “If the conditions changed, the State has the obligation to change the regulatory mark”, he stated.

Risk
According to Tolmasquim, the concession scheme was thought to attract investments and it is used in places where the risk is substantial. In Canadá and in the United States, mentioned as successful examples of concession, according to him, the situation is an oil of difficult extraction and the need to attract the largest number of companies to increase production, respectively.

The international experience is that the rate of 20% of success in the discovery of oil is considered as a good risk. In pre-salt, the success of the wells of Espírito Santo’s Basin was 87%, and in the Santos Basin is 100%.

The engineer stated that the concession is more attractive when the risk is greater.
“The model that is being planned in Brazil is a mixed scheme, with the sharing of pre-salt and concession in the risk areas for which it is necessary to attract companies”, he stated.

Operator
The rapporteur of the proposals, Deputy Henrique Eduardo Alves (PMDB-RN), and Deputy Fernando Gabeira (PV-RJ) questioned Petrobras as the sole operator of all the agreements of pre-salt. “In the context of Norway that uses the sharing model, the operator company itself asked for the flexibility to be able to decline a field that it considers uninteresting”, warned Gabeira.

According to Tolmasquim, in the countries that adopted the sharing system, it is normal to have a sole operator company, generally linked to the producing country. Likewise, the minimum share of 30% proposed by the government was not established by chance, because it is being adopted as a world-wide model.

The main reason, according to him, is that companies perform researches and develop technologies in their head office countries. With a Brazilian operator, it would be possible to spread the development to all the Country, in universities and research centers. Besides, the geological knowledge is centered in a national company. Finally, the fields must be within 300 kilometers of the coast, and it would be possible for Petrobras to design a single logistic for all the fields.

Royalties
The leader of DEM, Deputy Ronaldo Caiado (GO), said that his political party will not accept the division of pre-salt resources and royalties to be set after the approval of the regulatory framework. “We will not give a blank check to the government to discuss, who knows in what year, the sharing with states and municipalities”, he said.

Caiado reacted to the announcement made by the rapporteur that the debate about the royalties would happen in another moment. Henrique Eduardo Alves said that the discussion about royalties was distracting the more technical debate about the proposals and that government meetings about the subject were already scheduled : “It was a fight between the governors and the members of the Chamber; so I thought it was necessary a brake, so we could discuss the sharing and the strategic areas. We will settle a date to discuss the royalties”, he explained.

Reporting – Marcelo Larcher
Edition – João Pitella Junior
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Thamara Mello