Oil: Brazil and Guyana boost offshore drilling

Offshore oil drilling activity rose globally during the first semester of 2019, according to the Westwood Global Energy Group, helped by the Brent crude oil price that was above US$60/bbl since February.

Several large-scale offshore projects, such as Mero 2 in Brazil, the expansion of North Field south of Qatar, and the LNG project in Mozambique, are underway with high drilling costs.

It is expected that long-term and ambitious investments will happen in the coming years since several large-scale offshore projects have been approved.

Drilling in Latin America is expected to grow with strength, with recent discoveries in Guyana and more than 200 wells to be drilled in Brazil, especially in the pre-salt region.

Petrobras expects to sell more refineries

Still on the oil market, Petrobras is expected to announce a process for the sale of four more refineries by the beginning of August, as part of a billion-dollar plan to divest half of its refining plant in up to 24 months, said the president of the state, Roberto Castello Branco.

In all, the company – responsible for almost 100% of Brazil’s refining capacity – plans to sell 8 of its 13 refineries, four of which went on sale last week.

The idea is that only the refineries in Rio and São Paulo remain under the management of Petrobras.

Sale of onshore oil

Petrobras also reported that it had started the non-binding phase for the purchase of its onshore oil and gas cluster Polo Recôncavo, in Bahia.

During this phase of the process, interested parties should make non-binding offers for the cluster, consisting of 14 oil fields. Polo Recôncavo had an average production of 2,800 barrels per day of oil and 588,000 cubic meters of gas in 2018, according to Petrobras.

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