Brazil prepares itself for an international invasion

Brazil is finally opening its doors to the international oil industry with major prospects in view for oil companies and their contractors. It has been a tortuous process but a new chapter in Brazilís remarkable oil and gas history is about to be written. Andrew McBarnet recounts the story so far. This month the identity of successful bidders for blocks in the Brazil Round 1 will be known. It will be a highly significant landmark in the opening up of Brazil's oil and gas industry to the international industry after over 40 years' reliance on the monopoly for the state oil company Petrobras. The story of Brazilís sudden change of heart over the virtue of a nationalized oil industry has been fuelled partly by a worldwide turning away from state control. More pertinently there has been growing concern over the country's oil import import bill and the need to increase home production as rapidly as possible, a task regarded as beyond Petrobras. The company was founded in 1953 as a state monopoly of the company's oil industry, upstream and downstream. It inherited from the former National Oil Council oil fields with a capacity to produce 2700 b/d as well as downstream interests in refineries, tankers and the like. Its recoverable reserves of oil were at that time put at 15 million barrels. The company's fortunes and stature in the world industry changed dramatically following the discovery of the Guaroupa field in the Campos Basin in 1974, which put Petrobras on the road to developing some of the most innovative offshore technological projects in the world, setting records for deep water production along the way. By 1981 the Guaroupa, Namorado, Anchova, Pampo and Badejo fields were in production producing over 50% of the countryís oil and gas. Today offshore production of oil and natural gas represents 73% of the total output of Brazil.