The idea of implementing the segment of small and medium oil and gas producers in Brazil took clear forms when we were managing the operations of Petrobras Internacional in Angola. The observation of those land camps abandoned due to the civil war that was unfolding in that country, for approximately two decades, and the extreme difficulty of survival of the populations of those areas, the poverty on the surface in contrast to the wealth contained in the subsoil, in a so-called socialist regime , was something incomprehensible.
The lack of interest from the large oil companies present in the country and successfully engaged in maritime operations allowed us to anticipate that only with the involvement of government authorities encouraging the emergence of small businessmen that wealth could be converted into benefits for the country. Unfortunately, this has not yet occurred in Angola.
Returning to Brazil, at a time when the signs were stronger that the Petrobras monopoly could be withdrawn very soon, we had the opportunity to visit some onshore oil facilities on a mission to analyze the performance of some fields whose indicators were not in accordance with the standards established by Petrobras' Supervisory Bodies in Rio de Janeiro.
The verification that in some fields the operational situation was very similar to that observed in Angola, despite not having any of the serious problems that impeded the activity in that African country, led us to research the real reasons that resulted in that scenario.
The result of this analysis clearly showed that those assets lacked sufficient economic attractiveness to compete in obtaining the necessary investments, given that Petrobras had grown a lot and its maritime activities increasingly demanded millionaire resources. It was basically a matter of priority and scale.
Obtaining a political and economic solution applicable to those accumulations that remained marginalized in Petrobras' portfolio of opportunities took more than three years of negotiations.
It can be said that the initial milestone for solving this problem was the signing, in 2000, of the Production Contract with Risk Clause with the Bahian company PetroRecôncavo for the operation of 12 marginal fields in the Recôncavo Basin. PetroRecôncavo, the company originated from this contract, became, in fact, the 1st independent oil producer in Bahia.
The country's need to have oil reserves and production compatible with its stage of development led Petrobras to intensify its efforts in offshore exploration, bearing in mind that, since the beginning of this activity, in the late 1960s, the appropriate reserves and the productivity of wells at sea proved to be considerably higher than those hitherto discovered on land.
In 25 years of activities focused on maritime areas, oil and natural gas reserves were appropriated about 14 times greater than those found in more than 60 years of onshore exploration. It should be noted that onshore fields representing around 67% of the country's total producing fields currently contain less than 10% of Brazilian reserves. In terms of oil production, offshore fields contribute around 87% of national production through 9% of producing wells in the country.
It is interesting to note that until the beginning of the 1980s, oil activity in Brazil was concentrated in onshore exploration and production operations conducted in poor regions located in Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas, Espírito Santo, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará.
However, Petrobras' structural and financial limitations did not allow for the application of an effort of the same intensity as that exerted in the maritime operation for the prospection and development of our onshore basins, although these, in area, correspond to 75% of the potentially producing basins in Brazil.
Assuming, in 2002, the Director of Exploration and Production of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, ANP, and in the fulfillment of our new attributions of regulation and promotion of the industry, and in favor of the public interest, we intensified the process of incentive the implementation, in the country, of the segment of medium and small oil and gas producers, commonly called independent producers.
These new companies would have their main focus of action in onshore basins, which were no longer the main objective of Petrobras and the other large integrated oil companies, but which could still mean wealth generation and incorporation into the job market for a good part of the population. locations.
This initiative includes the ANP's search for resources to acquire new geology and geophysics data in immense practically unexplored terrestrial basins and the reduction of the area of the blocks offered in its bids for exploration in former producing areas already intensively worked, called mature basins, which, above all, facilitates the performance of small and medium-sized companies.
In addition to these initiatives, a limit was established for the total area that could be acquired by the same company in these basins, aiming at pulverizing opportunities and, consequently, increasing the number of companies operating in those regions.
A detailed study carried out by the ANP in December 2005, with a view to its 2nd Bidding for Marginal Fields, found that of the 217 Petrobras fields located in onshore basins, 157 of them were in the category known as marginal fields, with proven reserves of less than 530 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per field. These 157 fields, although incorporating around 3500 wells drilled, represented around 0.6% of the country's proven reserves.
It is a fact that the revitalization of such fields will not have any significant impact on the economic performance of Petrobras, concessionaire of all of them, but it would represent an extraordinary movement towards regional development, through the generation of jobs, dissemination of knowledge, collection of taxes, implementation of infrastructure for services, promotion of the manufacture of Brazilian equipment, etc.
A recent survey of the situation of these marginal Petrobras fields over the last 3 years allowed the identification of several fields that could be immediately returned to the ANP for the consolidation of the project to create an independent oil producer in Brazil.
The small independent oil producer works on low risk projects, but with a low premium in terms of financial return. Therefore, it needs the existence of new business opportunities.
In Canada, to maintain the activity of these companies, the Department of Energy of the province of Alberta, region where most of the country's oil and gas reserves are located, promotes 24 tenders per year for areas for exploration and production and the industry can name the areas of your interest. The small area of the blocks offered allows the performance of small companies that cannot afford the acquisition of large blocks.
As a result of this policy, Alberta currently has 600 small and medium oil producers and nearly 2,000 service companies.
It is possible to promote, in deprived areas of Brazil, a development compared to that obtained in the province of Alberta, when the large integrated oil companies gave way to the implementation of about 2300 small companies operating in the oil and gas sector.
The goal to be achieved is the consolidation of the segment of the small and medium Brazilian oil company, eliminating barriers that impede its implementation. The bidding of marginal fields, in operation or deactivated, is an instrument to achieve this objective.
Small or medium-sized companies interested in fields of this size generally do not have the resources to bear the high risks of exploratory investments that may not result in revenue. The best known examples are the acquisition of high-cost geological and geophysical data and the subsequent drilling of exploratory wells that, in most cases, result in dry wells.
In the long term, it is expected to break the inertia that prevents the development and application of resources in the most needy areas of the country and achieve a situation of self-sustaining development from investments made in the profitable oil and natural gas production sector.
It is worth remembering that, as an investment hub, the oil sector can make the resources used in it also mean an increase in economic activity in commercial establishments in the municipalities, thus significantly increasing the number of people benefiting from this activity.
Newton Monteiro is a mechanical engineer from the Escola Nacional de Engenharia-RJ, a master's degree in applied mathematics (PUC-RJ) and a master's degree in petroleum engineering (Stanford University, USA). He is former director of E&P at ANP, and former general manager of Petrobras Internacional in Angola. He is currently technical coordinator and professor of the Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Business Management course – Brazilian Institute of Oil and Gas.