The Toucan and the Dragon

It took a while to happen, but Petrobras and Chinese oil and petrochemical companies finally reached partnership agreements. Considering the scope of the Brazilian pre-salt and the expected growth of the Brazilian O&G market, these partnerships may become vital, as much more investments will be needed along the next 10 years.

These partnerships in research and O&G exploration and production have been in negotiations for a long time but it took an official Brazilian delegation, headed by Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff, going to China, in order make it happen. It was a certainty in the market that this partnership would eventually come to be, it was just a matter of when it would happen and what it would encompass.

With Sinopec, Petrobras struck a Technological Cooperation Agreement (TCA), in order to exchange knowledge in areas such as geophysics, geology, and reservoir engineering.

Petrobras also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Sinochem, China´s leading pretochemical conglomerate, aiming at strategic cooperation in order to identify and make business opportunities viable in E&P areas, oil and gas commerce and mature field recuperation.

Petrobras and Sinopec have manifested their desire to look for mutually beneficial business opportunities in various areas, including subsea technology and deepwater subsea systems manufacture, therefore increasing the commercial relations already in gear between the two companies.

China has been making significant investments in subsea technology and the development of the Brazilian and West African deepwater pre-salt is considered of strategic importance by the Chinese government. Sinochem is already uncorking new oil in Brazil, through its partnership with Statoil.

This is happening at the Statoil operated Peregrino field in the Campos Basin, where Sinochem holds a 40% stake. The field is located 85km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro at a depth of 120 meters.

A new exploration well was just drilled at the Peregrino South reservoir, just a few kilometers from the already producing, main Peregrino field. This new sandstone oil accumulation was found within the famous Carapebus geological formation, which also contains other important Campos Basin reservoirs. It is still too early to define the size of the new discovery, as Statoil is still to drill an additional appraisal well in Peregrino South.

The importance of new discoveries in the Campos Basin must be emphasized, for a long time this Basin was thought to be mostly over-explored and only contain mature fields. These new Statoil discoveries, along with the discovery of a new O&G province in the South Campos Basin by OGX, and other new discoveries, basically eliminates any notion that the Campos Basin has little left to give. Last year Petrobras even discovered new pre-salt reservoirs under existing post-salt wells in the Campos Basin, which was something very few would have expected.

Claudio Paschoa

Above: Petrobras CEO José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, and Sinopec CEO Fu Chengyu signed a Technology Cooperation Agreement at company's headquers in Beijing

Above: Petrobras E&P Director, Guilherme Estrella, during the Memorandum of Understanding signing cerimony for the Strategic Cooperation with Sinochem in Beijing, China