Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 39 2022

LatAmOil BRAZIL LatAmOil

Speaking during the opening ceremony of Rio of the country. Brazil could be losing out on a
Oil & Gas 2022, Sachsida noted that Petrobras major opportunity to open up new hydrocar-
and other oil companies working in Brazil were bon provinces if it does not pick up the pace of
pumping billions of dollars into upstream devel- allowing international oil companies (IOCs)
opment projects. Together with changes in the into the Barreirinhas, Ceara, Foz do Amazonas,
Brazilian economy, these investments are serv- Para-Maranhao, and Potiguar basins, he said.
ing to push crude output upward, he said. “We want more responsibility in the envi-
“Something different is happening in Bra- ronmental licencing, but the answer must come
zil,” the minister said. “We are cutting taxes and faster,” he said. “A process cannot be stalled for
undergoing the largest economic revolution a decade.”
since 1990.” If the necessary licences are granted, he
He also urged Brazilian authorities to speed added, drilling in the northern equatorial mar-
up the environmental licensing process for gin could begin as soon as November of this
blocks in frontier basins in the northern part year. ™

Lula wants Petrobras to expand refining

operations, says top oil and gas advisor

LUIZ Inacio Lula da Silva, the top-polling can- refining operations, rebuild its international
didate in Brazil’s upcoming presidential elec- business and seek out new opportunities to con-
tion, intends to expand the refining arm of the tribute to the global energy transition, he said.
national oil company (NOC) Petrobras if he According to Prates, Lula sees these tasks as
wins the vote on October 2, according to one of higher priorities, even if they are not as effective
his top advisors. at generating high profits and dividends. Even
Senator Jean Paul Prates, who is acting as the though the NOC has succeeded in boosting its
campaign’s point man for oil and gas issue, told earnings by concentrating on pre-salt develop-
Bloomberg in an interview last week that Lula ment projects, he noted, it has not done enough
did not believe the NOC should focus so intently to prepare for the shift that the global energy
on upstream development of its major upstream sector is sure to undergo in the process of decar-
assets in the pre-salt section of Brazil’s offshore bonisation, he commented.
zone. Moreover, he said, Petrobras cannot count on
Petrobras should instead seek to expand its current conditions continuing indefinitely.

Prates is Lula’s top oil and gas advisor (Photo: Facebook/senadorjean)

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 39 28•September•2022