Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - brazil

The umbilicals in the oil and gas industry are the lifelines of deepwater O&G fields, connecting wells to the offshore platform. The use of carbon fiber rods to replace some of the steel sheathing is an interesting development for use in deepwater umbilicals.Since the 1990s, subsea production systems have become increasingly important, specifically for deepwater plays. Some wells or well systems are located as far as 100 km from the production rig and may be up to 3,000 meters deep. As a result, umbilicals composed of steel tube conduit, thermoplastic hose, or a combination of the both, are critical for power, control, communication, and fluid injection to keep deepwater wells working efficiently and producing continuously.

Located in São João da Barra, about 4 hours north of the city of Rio de Janeiro, the Açu Superport is a private mixed-use port terminal that will have 10 docking berths; four for iron ore, two for oil-handling, one for coal and three for steel products, slag, granite and pig iron.LLX, established in March 2007, is the port terminals logistics company of the EBX Group. Since the company started, they have been building two large, mixed use ports, strategically located in southeast Brazil, this area represents approximately 75% of Brazilian GDP. These terminals are expected to be as good as the most modern port terminals anywhere in the world. The Açu Superport will have a depth of 21 meters, and a bridge 2.9 kilometers long and will allow the mooring of Chinamax vessels with 400,000 DWT.

With Brazilian presidential elections imminent, and having just completed its successful shares offer, Petrobras finds itself in a privileged position with the new pre-salt legislation guaranteeing the company as sole operator of all the pre-salt blocks negotiated from the 11th bidding round onwards.Although some parts of the new legislation are still to be voted it is considered as a certainty that the bils concerning Petrobras´ greater influence in the pre-salt will pass. Since the discovery of the Tupi field in 2007, and other pre-salt fields discovered at the Santos Basin, there has been national and global excitement over the possible extent of Brazil´s pre-salt reserves.

AUVs had only been used for a limited number of tasks dictated by the technology available until newer technologies were developed. With the development of more advanced processing capabilities and high yield power supplies, AUVs are now being used in Brazil for some new tasks, although its primary function is still seismic studies and environment analysis.The players in the Brazilian O&G market use AUVs in conjunction with Survey ships to make detailed maps of the seafloor before they start building subsea infrastructure; pipelines and subsea completions can be installed in the most cost effective manner with minimum disruption to the environment.

Four new construction yard foundations are being built in the Aratu Bay inside the Bay of All Saints (Baía de Todos os Santos), in the state of Bahia.The four new yards will build offshore rigs modules and the complex is expected to open a total of 4,000 work positions for the local workforce. The state maritime and port industry secretary commented that there is a need to invest in workforce training or there will be an invasion of workers from other states. Steps are being taken by the State and Federal Government to qualify workers, such as welders, painters and technicians to man the yards. The new yards will be run by four different companies, Belov Engenharia and GDK from Bahia, Multitek from Minas Gerais and Niplan from São Paulo.

The MODEC owned and operated FPSO Cidade de Angra dos Reis MV22 has been moored in 2,150 meters (7,053 ft) at its final operational location over the giant Tupi area in the Santos Basin. O&G production operations will begin in a few weeks after on-location tests.MODEC converted the VLCC "M/V Sunrise IV" into an FPSO at the COSCO (Dalian) Shipyard Co., Ltd. (“COSCO Dalian”) in China. The FPSO is classified by ABS as 29.7 meters in depth, 58.00 meters in breadth, and 318.46 meters in length. The conversion from VLCC to FPSO involved steel fabrication, module installation and integration, the installation of cables, pipe and equipment.

The 15th edition of the Rio Oil & Gas 2010 conference and convention broke all records of public and participants and is being considered the biggest and best edition ever. While it can be said that O&G was the main theme of the event, bio-fuels and the maritime industry also had a strong presence. The theme for this 15 edition of the Rio Oil & Gas was “From Petroleum to Bio-fuels: Integrating Knowledge and Increasing the Limits”. The numbers are really impressive, from September 13, when the event started, around 46 thousand participants from 51 countries passed through the 5 pavilions and 2 massive tents arrayed in the 37,000 m² of Riocentro convention center in Rio de Janeiro. There were over 1,700 exhibitors and 740 technical papers presented by researchers from 28 countries.

The new facilities, including bold construction techniques, sustainability and eco-efficiency, represent an advance for Petrobras’ technology development. With the expansion the complex on Fundão Island will occupy more than 300 thousand m² making it one of the largest centers of applied research in the world. There will be various laboratories designed to meet the technological demands of Petrobras’ business areas, in particular, the laboratories of Biotechnology, Environment and Gas & Energy stand out. The expansion will also include modern laboratories dedicated exclusively to meeting the demands of the pre-salt projects. The CENPES expansion is part of a Petrobras strategy to expand the experimental capacity of the Brazilian technological park.

According to Petrobras and many other players involved in the O&G market, Rio de Janeiro is the new oil capital of the world.Now that actually may come to be, but there is still a ways to go. As it is, we are all happy campers down here. It is not hard to tell that the simple possibility of this happening is blowing minds and aggravating some players, especially in Houston. The fact is that what goes up must eventually come down and that´s just the way it is. I must admit that for a Brazilian like me, a middle class wanna be, the numbers are quite thrilling. However, there is no running from the fact that the challenges are many. You can have all the oil in the world…

The sheer amount of orders already placed and expected for drill ships and rigs is pushing the new Brazilian shipbuilding industry into raising its game in order to compete for driller orders.Petrobras alone is responsible for ordering a total of 28 drill ships of which 9 have already gone through the tendering process and will soon start being built. Transocean is building 9 drill ships at international shipyards, including the Petrobras 10,000 drillship at the Samsung shipyard in South Korea, the ship being already pegged for a 10 year service contract with Petrobras. Noble has 3 drill ships and 2 drill rigs slated to start five to six year contracts with Petrobras.

Petrobras has lately been dealing with serious workers, syndicate, regulatory agency and judicial concerns over the state of some equipment on a few of its older production platforms. How important is safety anyway?The O&G workers syndicate, “Sindicato dos Petroleiros do Norte Fluminense” (SPNF) has been battling with Petrobras over the state of conservation of some production platforms at the Campos Basin. The main complaints were rusted pipes, usually the ones flowing with water and gas that show advanced stages of rust and also problems with working conditions of various valves and lubrication filters. In some rigs the rust is so pronounced that areas had to be cordoned off as they presented grave danger to workers. This includes stairs, floor grates and safety fences.

The use of automated equipments is on a steady rise in Brazilian shipyards, which are looking to be more competitive and meet order demands. A modernized production line is a necessity for the national shipyards in order to be internationally competitive and to honor contract schedules. Basically all the shipyards are investing in automation to a larger or lesser extent. At this point the Brazilian shipyard which has most invested in automated systems is the EAS shipyard (Estaleiro Atlantico Sul) at the Suape complex in Ceará, northeast Brazil. It is also the biggest shipyard in operation in the country and has a partnership with Korean shipbuilding giant Samsung Heavy Industries.

China Petrochemical (Sinopec) and the Chinese national oil company (CNOOC) are holding separate negotiations with OGX Petroleo e Gás in order to acquire 20% of an OGX deepwater play at the Santos Basin. In general we can see a marked increase in Chinese involvement and investments in Brazil.These negotiations are the most recent effort of Chinese oil companies in Latin America. Normally Chinese oil investments are driven to Asia, the Middle East and Africa, regions that historically concentrate the majority of Chinese imports in energy sources and raw material. As recently as May of this year, Sinochem Group, China’s biggest chemicals trader, agreed yesterday to pay $3 billion to Statoil ASA for 40 percent of the Brazilian offshore Peregrino field.

Starfish Oil & Gas is not exactly a new player, since the company was founded in 1999. As the first private national O&G operator in Brazil and classified as a B class operator by ANP (National Petroleum Agency), Starfish has participation in a variety of onshore and offshore blocks in Brazil and in Angola. The company is structured as a closed capital corporation with capital stock of R$ 82.365 million (US$ 46,533 million, at the current exchange rate). The company´s stock is divided in 502.62 thousand common shares, distributed among 80 shareholders in Brazil and abroad. The first opportunities in the O&G market were identified by the company in the group of licenses granted by the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) to Petrobras in the so-called Round Zero, in August of 1998.

With the expected growth of the Brazilian O&G market and high potential for new discoveries, new national and international O&G operators are preparing for or already undertaking exploratory campaigns. We will be taking a look at these new operators and also at how the established players are going about E&P in Brazil.The first new player we will be looking at is HRT Oil & Gas, which is a new national operator, founded in 2009. HRT O&G is a company belonging to the HRT Participation Group, an O&G market consultancy company founded by a prominent geologist Marcio Rocha Mello PhD, who worked for Petrobras for 25 years. HRT`s initial targets are the Brazilian and West African sedimentary basins.

Today was the last day of the Navalshore 2010 maritime and offshore industry conference and fair in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Since Wednesday, shipbuilding and maritime equipment industry businessmen from the four corners of the globe have been demonstrating and negotiating their products. At the same time and as an integral part of the event, various conferences have taken place, all related to shipping, shipbuilding and the offshore (O&G) industries.The conferences comprised everything from market forecasts, supply chain demands and expectations, market regulation and business financing, including a very enlightening exposition on the sustainability of the Brazilian shipbuilding industry by Professor Floriano Pires – Ocean Engineering Program of COPPE…

DOF has been awarded four new charter contracts by Petrobras, at a total value of NOK 5.2 billion.Norskan Offshore do Brazil, a subsidiary of DOF ASA has been awarded four, 8 years contracts with Petrobras for large AHTS vessels. Two of the charter contracts are for new build numbers 26 and 27 to be built at the STX Promar yard in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Norskan is in final negotiation with STX Promar for two new build contracts to serve the other two charter contracts awarded. The charter contracts are expected to begin sometime between 2011 and 2013. The four contracts represent gross revenues of approximately NOK 5.2 billion. DOF CEO Mons Aase commented…

NAVALSHORE 2010 - Trade show and conference for the maritime and offshore industry to take pace next week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Organized in Rio de Janeiro since 2004, Navalshore has become the main event for the maritime industry in the Brazil. The 2009 edition gathered 259 companies from many countries such as:  United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, China, Italy, Singapore, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Norway, Finland, Chile, Denmark, Argentina, and Brazil. 12,600 professionals from marine construction and repairs attended the event. UBM as organizer of a number of the leading events in the maritime industry, all with international recognition…

A new partnership between ANP (National Petroleum Agency), Ibama (National Environmental Agency) and the Brazilian Navy, plans to upgrade and expand existing E&P safety measures, in order to prevent major oil spills in Brazil. According to Haroldo Lima, Director of ANP, presently Petrobras elaborates the contingency programs for each platform, but now the Brazilian government will launch a nationwide contingency plan led by the navy and involving the regulatory agency and the environmental agency. Although Lima emphasizes that the current safety systems and regulatory systems in place on offshore platforms in Brazil are among the most advanced in the world, he admits there will certainly be upgrades due to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy at the GOM.

GE O&G has been awarded a contract valued at $160 million to supply gas turbine and compressor equipment by Petrobras Neatherlands BV (PNBV).The equipment will be deployed on two FPSOs (P-58 and P-62) for E&P in oil fields located in Brazilian offshore plays. This important $160 million contract is related to power generation and compressor equipment packages to be deployed on two Petrobras FPSO units slated to work the north side of the Parque das Baleias (Whale Park) O&G fields and at the Roncador field at the Campos Basin. These combined will support production of 360,000 barrels of oil per day. The FPSOs are scheduled to go online in 2013.