Increase in local oil production is a trend, says vice president of Shell in Brazil – 06/30/2023 – Market

After Shell changed its plans and reversed the reduction in global oil and gas production that started in 2021, the company is now considering even increasing oil production regionally, said Shell’s vice president in Brazil, Flavio Rodrigues.

“This prospect of maintaining or eventually increasing localized oil production is a trend,” Rodrigues told the Sheet during the 22nd Lide Business Forum, which takes place in Rio de Janeiro.

According to the executive, Brazil is among the eight most important countries for Shell’s operations, contributing with 400 thousand barrels per day of oil, while the company’s global production is 1.4 million barrels. “The representativeness of Brazil is extremely important”.

Rodrigues stated that the company is looking for opportunities in renewable energies, and recognizes that wind and solar energy production capacity in Brazil is already a reality. “The country has enormous potential,” he said. But the executive stressed that oil and gas are still the largest share of Shell’s investments.

“Saying that things will change from one day to the next is not the case. But we are changing over time”, he pondered.

In Brazil, the company has 17 oil and gas production projects underway, in the Campos and Santos basins, most of them in partnership with Petrobras. The company still expects, by 2030, that three new platforms enter the company’s local operation.

In renewable energies, Rodrigues highlighted Shell’s strong participation (44%) in Raízen, a Brazilian company in the sugar and ethanol sector. Shell’s share of Raízen came after an agreement signed at the end of last year, in which the British oil company undertook to buy 3.25 billion liters of cellulosic ethanol from sugar cane from the Brazilian company.

Rodrigues says that, in this agreement, both companies will be able to increase ethanol productivity by 50% using the same planted area, since it will use residues, such as sugarcane bagasse, and therefore will also reduce gas emissions by 30%. carbonic.

FOZ DO AMAZONAS

Rodrigues also defended the exploitation of the Foz do Amazonas basin, which was barred by Ibama. According to the executive, today there are sufficient safety standards to exploit oil in the region, managing to safely extract the product to place it on the market.

According to Rodrigues, Petrobras has all the conditions to explore the region. The executive sees exploration of the basin as a window of opportunity to generate value for the future, as the region “has great potential” to expand oil production in the country to meet global demand.

“This is a very important debate that was not done as we imagined. I hope that at some point we will be mature enough to make this decision”, he declared during the event’s panel.

Rodrigues said that there was a lack of technical clarity about the decision. The executive joked that “unfortunately” the name given to the basin is “Foz do Amazonas”, which ended up sensitizing the government to the discussion, but stated that the basin takes the coast of Amapá, and not the state of Amazonas.

According to the executive, exploration of the basin has the potential to bring local returns. “That entire coastline could totally change the political, social and economic contours of the region,” he said.

The reporter traveled at the invitation of the Business Forum Lide