New Players Tackling Brazilian Pre-salt – Barra Energia

Barra Energia do Brasil Petróleo e Gás Ltda or Barra Energia was established in 2010 as an independent O&G exploration and production company. Its headquarters is in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, close to all the main O&G Basins in Brazil and where all other players working the Brazilian offshore are based. The company was launched by executives, engineers and geologists that with long career histories in the O&G business, most hailing from super-majors like Petrobras and also from Repsol.

The company advertises its main competitive edge as being its technical and commercial expertise and local knowledge. Barra Energia is counting on this expertise to guide them in their E&P efforts which will primarily focus on the three major offshore O&G areas in Brazil, the Santos, Campos and Espírito Santo Basins.

The company also claims to be targeting high growth opportunities either in shallow or deep water, in both the post-salt and in the highly prized pre-salt plays, where they have recently bought 10% of the BM-S-8 Block in the Santos Basin from Shell in an operation involving a $175 million investment. This operation also involved another new Brazilian player, Queiroz Galvão Oleo e Gas (QGOG), which bought off another 10% of the same Block from Shell.

In May 2010, Barra Energia announced an agreement with the major American investment fund, First Reserve Corporation, the world’s leading energy-focused private equity investor and Riverside Holdings to commit $1billion of equity capital to fund the companies acquisitions projects and also their operations.

The BM-S-8 Block consortium is operated by Petrobras (66%) and also includes Galp Energy (14%). This block already has a proven light oil discovery (with preliminary estimates of between 25º and 28º API), in the Bem-te-Vi reservoir, which is still undergoing an evaluation process, but is expected to hold significant reserves. There is still much to be explored in this Block alone, and exploration efforts are ongoing. The Bem-te-Vi play is located 250km from the coast of Rio de Janeiro and is a serious deepwater challenge with the well located at 2,144 meters, with the reservoir being uncorked at 6002 meters.  

Claudio Paschoa