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Brazil looking to tap oil at same geologic trend delivering big discoveries in Guyana

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Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras will begin exploration this year at a resource-rich region along the country’s northern coast that falls in the same geologic trend containing the massive offshore discoveries made in neighboring Guyana.

According to Petrobras reservoir executive manager Tiago Homem, the company plans to invest $2 billion in exploration at the Equatorial Margin through 2026.

Petrobras is foreseeing an overall investment of $2.5 billion in seismic activities in the same period, according to a Reuters report.

Despite the uncertainties, Brazil continues to enact changes that industry officials expect will make the country more attractive to international players, S&P Global Platts said in a December 28 report. In an important and unheralded move, Brazil’s National Energy Policy Council, or CNPE, effectively changed the model for selling onshore and offshore acreage, including areas holding subsalt potential inside the polygon that requires production sharing contracts for development.

Brazil will go to the polls this year to select a new president in what is perhaps the biggest shadow looming over the oil and gas industry besides the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. President Jair Bolsonaro is expected to face off against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October, pitting Bolsonaro’s mostly market-friendly policies against a return to the Workers’ Party, or PT, focus on a state-led model for development.

Meanwhile, with Guyana’s elections worries over and a clear development pathway now laid out by the new administration, commercialization of the country’s vast hydrocarbon resources will continue in earnest in coming years.

President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo are adamant that the South American country should be able to develop its oil and gas resources despite calls around the world for a cut back in fossil fuel production to meet climate goals. The government has said Guyana, already a carbon sink, needs oil revenue to speed up economic development and deliver benefits to its people and plans to do so while protecting the environment.

And the oil companies operating off the country’s Atlantic coast understand this.

“President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo are very pro-business,” John Hess, CEO of Hess Corporation said last week at Goldman Sachs’ Global Energy and Clean Technology Conference. “They have been very clear that they want to accelerate the development of their oil resources. In fact, I think both of them at public events; I know Vice President Jagdeo at the UN in September made the point that Guyana has every right to develop its oil resources but both President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo said they’re going to do it in a very environmentally responsible manner.”

ExxonMobil, operator of the Stabroek Block where Hess has a 30% stake, has made over 20 commercial discoveries since 2015, delivering more than 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources.

The country is well on the way to becoming South America’s number two largest oil producer, second only to Brazil.

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Oil Reserves Discovered Off Coast of Brazil

Aerial view of La Muralla IV exploration oil rig, operated by Mexican company 'Grupo R' and working for Mexico's state-owned oil company PEMEX, in the Gulf of Mexico on August 30, 2013. The semisubmersible platform is able to drill to a depth of 10.000 meters in an enviroment such as the Gulf of Mexico. AFP PHOTO/OMAR TORRES (Photo credit should read OMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty Images) (National Journal)
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According to Brazil's National Petroleum Agency, vast oil reserves have been discovered near the coast of Sergipe, a state on the northern Atlantic coast of Brazil, the Associated Press reports.

Data has not yet been released to indicate the amount of recoverable oil contained in the reserves, and agency director Magda Chambriard said the figures would not be made public until 2016 or later.

The news follows Monday's auction of rights to a major Brazilian oil field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro to a number of foreign bidders, including European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and Chinese energy companies Cnooc and China National Petroleum.

Clare Foran is a former associate editor at The Atlantic.
Mitwah

Guyana wants Brazil to be “a very strong strategic partner” — President Ali

– discusses agenda for visit with Brazilian President

Jan 11, 2022 News -- Source -- Kaieteur News Online -- https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...rtner-president-ali/

Kaieteur News – President Irfaan Ali yesterday told the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, H.E Jair Bolsonaro, that Guyana wants to have a very strong strategic partnership with its Portuguese-speaking neighbours.

President Irfaan Ali and his team during the teleconference.

According to a government release, the two leaders, who communicated via teleconference, also discussed the agenda for the expected visit of President Bolsonaro to Georgetown later this month.

“We have a number of important issues and opportunities for both Guyana and Brazil that I wanted to highlight even before our meeting, so our technical teams can start some work.”

President Ali listed several areas that are critical for both countries to move their relationship forward, including energy and food security, telecommunication, infrastructure integration and trade.

He also pointed out that due to their geographical locations, the nations must make strong statements in linking their territories.

The Guyanese Head of State said that in addition to oil and gas, expanding opportunities in the other non-oil natural resources sector such as bauxite will create an opportunity for a direct link to northern Brazil and the Atlantic that can “create an excellent platform for us to develop an integrated project.”

As it relates to trade, currently, there is an existing partial scope agreement that aims to foster bilateral trade flows by the exchange of tariff preferences between the two countries, cooperation on trade matters and increased participation of the private sector.

This, President Ali said, is currently under negotiation to be expanded since Guyana wants to increase its quota, especially as it relates to rice being exported to Brazil.

President Bolsonaro, via an interpreter, said that the agenda for discussion looks “very promising” and that he will ensure that technical staff from the relevant ministries in Brazil travel for the state visit.

Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh; Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd; Foreign Secretary, Mr. Robert Persaud and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Elisabeth Harper were also at the Office of the President for the teleconference.

FM

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