My generation grew up hearing that Brazil was the country of the future. For several years we worked believing in a future that never arrived, which generated frustration and discouragement over the years. We have always seen Brazil trying to figure on the map of the most important countries in the world without much success, being treated as a mere “emergent”.
Today, to our joy, this long-awaited future has finally arrived. I am personally very pleased to experience a moment where all efforts converge towards the repositioning of the country. I can say that one of the factors that propelled the arrival of this future in a definitive way was the discovery of the pre-salt layer. The exploration of oil in the pre-salt layer is putting Brazil in a privileged position on the world stage in terms of energy.
In Brazil, according to the results obtained through well drilling, the pre-salt rocks extend along 800 kilometers of the coast, from Santa Catarina to Espírito Santo, and reach up to 200 kilometers in width. This is an area estimated at 149,000 m2 *, that is, the same area occupied by the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Alagoas and Sergipe together.
The thickness of the salt layer in the south-central portion of the Santos Basin reaches 2,000 meters, while in the northern portion of the Campos basin it is around 200 meters. This salt was deposited during the opening process of the Atlantic Ocean, after the breakup of Gondwana (ancient supercontinent formed by the Americas and Africa, which was followed by the separation of South America and Africa, started about 120 million years ago)*. After the announcement of the discovery of reserves in the scale of tens of billions of barrels, exploration processes began around the world in search of oil beneath the salt rocks in the deep layers of the marine subsoil.
Due to this new scenario, we currently face new challenges that demand new and elaborate solutions. In addition to the development of new technologies and services for oil and gas exploration, we also see the parallel growth of other fronts.
The new Technological Park on Ilha do Fundão / RJ is an excellent example of this. We opened our research center at this location in November of last year, practically at the same time as Petrobras' CENPES and currently we see several other centers being built in a place that is now completely taken over by companies also willing to invest in pre-salt development.
Today we already see a great movement in different aspects caused by this new scenario. The development of local content, which goes beyond the generation of jobs and also includes raising the level of local workforce, the construction of a representative Technological Park of the highest level, the investment of multinational companies in Brazil, among others, and are just some of the short and medium term benefits of the pre-salt era.
The advantages that pre-salt exploration brings are numerous, but the challenge is also enormous. It is an area of difficult access that demands new solutions in several aspects, from logistics to rock drilling. The obstacles are many and require great effort, which motivates us even more to collaborate in making this moment the biggest step for Brazil. As we have been preparing for this new reality for a long time, I can say, without fear of making mistakes, that we are ready for the future, now.
Ana Zambelli is a mechanical engineer. He worked in several areas at Schlumberger such as Field Operations, SMS, Human Resources, working in the United States, Africa and Europe. In 2007, he assumed the presidency of the company.
*Data source: Wikipedia