1 Sep 2009 - by PreSalt.com - Source: Petrobras News
The record volume of investments and orders Petrobras has scheduled for the 2009-2013 period opens a new and promising business front for the offshore good and service industry. Furthermore, on account of the size of the demand that will be generated, particularly by the pre-salt reservoir development projects, it also affords a unique opportunity for the Brazilian industry to consolidate itself, in a competitive manner and on sustainable bases, as a global oil and gas industry supplier.
In the upcoming years, the project portfolio the company has designed will allow for large-scale demand for drilling rigs, production units, submarine arrays, pumps, pipelines, flexible lines, in addition to thousands of other devices. The Business Plan earmarks upwards of $92 billion to oil exploration and production activities alone in Brazil through 2013.
Technical qualification
These investments will also drive the development of an entire high-tech production chain, since pre-salt field exploration requires sophisticated technological solutions in several Exploration and Production segments. They also open unprecedented financial and technological cooperation opportunities with partners in Brazil and abroad. While the huge amounts involved in the portfolio Petrobras defined for the upcoming years open new business opportunities, the growing demand and the technological sophistication of the projects that will be developed through 2013 will require the Brazilian industry to make a significant leap in competitiveness and professional qualification. Massive investments will have to be made in qualifying labor, one of the sector’s main bottlenecks. Furthermore, some shipyards will have to be recovered, while others built.
Prominp
Petrobras and the Brazilian government have been betting, since 2003, on a successful strategy to qualify Brazilian suppliers. This strategy has been consolidated through the Oil Industry Mobilization Program (Prominp), the mission of which is to revitalize the national oil and gas industry on competitive, sustainable bases, in addition to driving the increase in local content in projects developed by Petrobras. This program has already raked-in significant results in five years. Since the creation of the Prominp, the national industry’s participation in the sector’s investments grew 57% in 2003 to 75% in the first half of 2009, an expressive additional amount of $13.2 billion in goods and services contracted in the domestic market and the generation of an additional 605,000 jobs in this period. This program articulates the interaction among the federal government, financial entities, class associations, labor training centers, among other institutions, involving all faces of the oil and gas productive chain.
In a survey carried out of the Labor Ministry’s CAGED (the General Employed and Unemployed Person Reference File), in June 2009, it was determined 81% of the professionals trained by the Prominp are employed in the formal work market.
The Prominp is boosting its coverage range even more in order to deal with the heightened demand for goods and services driven by the pre-salt development. A new pillar will be the technological development plan, which will involve universities, research centers, the private initiative, public sectors, and suppliers. Anchored on a common priority agenda, which includes developing human resources, infrastructure and unprecedented technologies, the new program’s mission is to drive technological competitiveness and regional development. All of this is geared to meet the industry’s needs on account of the boom of new orders Petrobras and other companies have scheduled for the next few years. Another important point is Petrobras’ strategy to develop the pre-salt and standardize production projects.
From the first fixed platforms built in modules to operate in Northeastern Brazil to the cutting-edge FPSOs (floating oil and gas production, storage and offloading units) installed in the Campos Basin (in Rio de Janeiro), such as the P-54, which operates out of the Roncador Field, the strategy to standardize project has proved to be successful. Preliminary assessments made by Petrobras and its partners show the pre-salt reserve conditions are extremely favorable for the application of the FPSO standardizing concept, which includes the entire offshore utility and lodging system.
Hull plant in Rio Grande do Sul
To ensure production in series and speed-up platform conversions, Petrobras bets on a solution that is considered as strategic in the package of demands for the pre-salt: erecting a large construction site to build hulls in series. This construction site will lead to the enhancement of the Rio Grande Shipyard, in Rio Grande do Sul. A dry dock is being built there that will be capable of holding up to two large FPSO hulls or semi-submersible unit hulls simultaneously. The pre-salt reserve development plan already foresees the construction of eight standardized FPSOs at this new shipyard.
In addition to reducing Brazil’s external dependence on building and converting platforms, the new shipyard will not only drive internal competitiveness, but also help reduce both the price and the construction time of the future projects.
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