Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - investments

The fisheries industry in Rio de Janeiro particularly and in Brazil in general, has historically received few investments from the government or the private sector. In reality, even fisheries monitoring, regulations and inspections are lax, at best. Many species have become basically extinct, such as the large lobster. This many soon begin to change. Recently the environmental secretary for Rio de Janeiro, Carlos Minc, announced that investments in fisheries and aquaculture will be included as part of the demands for local environmental licensing. This will be mostly directed to industrial environmental licensing in the north part of Rio but will eventually be an integral demand in all environmental licensing procedures along the coast of Rio.

This is true for all areas of the O&G industry and definitely highlights the importance of Brazil´s pre-salt E&P. The recent unrest experienced in Bahrain in the Middle East, the ongoing civil war in Libya, rampant attacks on oilfields in Nigeria and uncertainties in other WA countries, added to the drilling moratorium at the GOM may have a substantial influence in O&G related investments being increasingly channeled to Brazil. One of the consequences of the international unrest that is influencing an increase in investments in the Brazilian pre-salt, is the increase in world oil prices, which is at around $113 a barrel of Brent, with the latest rise directly resulting from the clashes in Libya and unrest in other Middle East countries…

Sete (Seven) Brasil is the newest Petrobras offspring. The the new private company was launched to administer the 28 drillships that Petrobras will order. The tender process for the first seven orders was won by EAS shipyard, located in the Suape Complex, close to the city of Recife, in the Northeast State of Pernambuco. The total price for these seven drillers adds up to $4.637 billion, which means a $13 million discount from the original proposal. The final price for each driller is pegged at around $662 million and the drillers are scheduled to start operations by 2015. During construction the forecast is for 32 thousand direct and indirect job openings. In its operational phase, the forecast is for 10 thousand direct and indirect jobs for a period of 10 years.