opinion
of Haroldo Lima, General Director of the ANP – National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels.
It’s time
for the pre-salt and the small oil and gas producers
Now that most of new regulatory framework for the pre-salt has been approved by Congress, Brazil is ready to start a new era in its economic history.
I
am quite certain that our country will benefit immensely from exploring the new reserves by accelerating growth, investing in strategic segments such as education, science and technology, sustainable development and combating poverty. In the next few years, I am certain we will see Brazil transform into a major producer of oil and gas and into exporter of oil derivatives, further strengthening the industry. We have undoubtedly reached the time for the pre-salt, but we have also reached a turning point for the consolidation of the small and medium oil and gas producers. As T&B Petroleum Magazine has shown in its most recent issues, a group of enterprises have been battling to maintain and increase their oil and gas production – whether in Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas or Rio Grande do Norte. The companies represent employment opportunity and improvements in some of the poorest regions of our nation, and at the same time, they are important to the domestic industries, especially in the equipment supply segment, which has found a significant opportunity to diversify their activities with these small- and medium-sized oil and gas companies – sales to this industry has reached US$ 1bn since 2003, according to the Brazilian Association of Independent Oil and Gas Producers (Abpip).
Since that time I have been giving warning about the importance of having a segment of small- and medium-sized oil and gas companies. In 2005 and 2006, the ANP held two bid rounds for Marginal Accumulation Areas. New rounds have not been held because the ANP does not have any new areas at the moment, but that does not mean they do not exist. In Bahia, according to research of the Federal University of Bahia (Ufba), there are some 1,600 and 1,800 under-utilized or virtually inactive wells. The oil and gas that can still be found in these fields, where exploration is not economically advantageous to big oil companies, cannot go to waste. The USA and Canada have, respectively, 7,000 and 1,500 small- and medium sized companies, which together create more than 300,000 jobs and produce 2m barrels of oil per day. We are still far from these numbers here in Brazil. In January 2010, there were 23 smalland medium-sized oil companies collectively producing around 1,700 barrels per day, repreT&B Petroleum # 29
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