Another highlight was the start of the production flow from Lula field in September of 2011. According to Antônio Castro, gas from the pre-salt is now a reality in the Brazilian market and in Petrobras’s operations. In 2011, Petrobras ended a cycle of investments in the natural gas transport network, which totaled US$ 15 billion since 2007. Last year, operations of the Caraguatatuba-Taubaté Gas Pipeline and the Gas Treatment Unit in Caraguatatuba, both in São Paulo, got underway. With these investments, Brazil now has 42 compression systems and 173 points of delivery, with a gas pipeline network of 9,700 km of extension. Marcelo Castilho, a geology and geophysics specialist and assistant superintendent of the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP), highlighted the investments that Petrobras has been making since 2007 through the Multi-Year Plan of the Brazilian Sedimentary Basins, created to obtain more data on areas of exploratory interest, mainly natural gas. Data is being obtained through 2D and 3D seismic acquisition, an investment of R$ 1 billion by the end of the year. During his lecture, Marcelo pointed out that Brazil’s proven gas reserves stand at 423 billion m³, and that gas output in 2011 was 66.7 million m³ per day. According to him, onshore fields are the new exploratory frontier in Brazil’s natural gas sector, mainly Amazonas, Parnaíba and Paraná basins. Concerning the 11th Bidding Round of the ANP, Castilho said that the National Energy Policy Council has already authorized it, but that it still needs to be published in order to move forward. He mentioned that the round is going to bid 168 blocks, 84 onshore and 84 offshore. The commercial vice-president of BG Brasil, Marcelo Menicucci, is less optimistic. He says that Brazil is going to continue to import natural gas during the next years in order to supply domestic demand. “The pre-
salt gas infrastructure needs to be developed in order to make it viable for the market”, he stated. UOP LLC, a Honeywell group company, also attended the lectures during the first day of the event. In her lecture, Rebecca Liebert, vice-president and general manager of the Gas and Hydrogen Processing division at Honeywell UOP, talked about UOP’s Separex technology, membrane system and absorbent technology, which has been increasingly used in natural gas processing on FPSOs. The role of natural gas in energy generation was the first theme covered on the second day of the event. Marcelo Prado, Marketing director at GE Energy Latin America, presented the gas resources available in Brazil, and how the market is handling this demand. According to Marcelo, the role of natural gas in the market is increasingly more relevant and will be an essential source for Brazil’s energy generation. “During the next ten years, natural gas is going to play a more important role for domestic development, especially in Brazil and in Latin America. Thermoelectric generation will be used intermittently and as a complement, along with renewable energy – especially wind and solar – similar to what happened in Europe and the United States”, he stated. Prado stressed that gas turbines should have more flexible and efficient operation. The importance of natural gas for industrial growth was covered by Antônio Castro, marketing and commercialization executive manager for Gas & Energy at Petrobras. Brazil’s industrial gas consumption rose 14% from 2007 to 2011. According to Castro, industrial demand leads the market. “The foundation of Brazil’s solid and continuous gas consumption is the Brazilian industrial sector”, stated Castro. Castro talked about gas production in the pre-salt: “The gas that will lead to an increase in
production during the next ten years is going to come from Santos Basin”. He assesses that this gas will be used primarily to reinject wells, optimizing oil production. Another part will be used to offset decline in current production of other fields in the long-term. And a third part will go to new markets, such as fertilizer plants, refineries and petrochemical complexes. Eric Eyberg, Gas & Energy consultant at Wood Mackenzie, talked about development opportunities from unconventional gas (shale gas) in Brazil. He presented results and conclusions of various consulting studies recently prepared for consumers and producers on the São Francisco Basin. The analysis confirms the great potential of the region, which could be equivalent to Marcellus, in the US, in terms of size and resources. “Minas Gerais is an important hub in the existing infrastructure industry and sector such as high voltage power lines and the proximity to new gas resources could lead to expansions in other gas intensive industries”, he points out. The company believes in the global development of shale gas, with huge opportunities in Poland, China and South America. “Despite the favorable scenario in Brazil there are hurdles such as labor shortage, lack of an onshore services industry, technology for application, commercialization and regulatory system”, indicates Eyberg. In the same panel, Juan Jasson, LNG Business consultant at Shell, indicated LNG as a good option for Brazil given its competitiveness, accessibility and non-corrosion, and presented the company’s projects that use innovative technologies for application in the gas. Financial and regulatory issues that affect Brazil’s gas market were discussed by Luiz Daniel de Souza, manager of the gas department at the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and by attorney Godofredo Mendes Vianna, partner of the law firm Kincaid Mendes Vianna Advogados.
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