Optimism at Rio Oil & Gas

After challenging times in the Brazilian oil and gas market, this year’s Rio Oil & Gas exhibition signalled optimism and gave the impression that things are now moving in the right direction. This is further supported by market analysis and statements from the leading operator, Petrobras.

GCE Subsea was present at Rio Oil & Gas 2016 with a stand at the Norwegian Pavilion. The exhibition is recognised as the leading oil and gas industry event in Latin America and attracts companies and visitors from all over the world, with a significant Norwegian presence. According to the organiser IBP, the exhibition and conference attracted 11.000 visitors on Tuesday alone.

Norwegian Presence

As usual, many Norwegian companies and visitors were present, and we counted 10 GCE Subsea member companies among the exhibitors. The larger corporations had their own stands, whereas some of the SME’s like Fjell Subsea Products and ClampOn exhibited together with their Brazilian partners. A Norwegian presence is very important in order to be well positioned for the new uprising of the huge Brazilian subsea market.

Breakfast Seminar

Our traditional breakfast seminar was arranged in cooperation with Innovation Norway, INTSOK and the Consul General. This year we had the pleasure of having Rystad Energy as a sponsor of the event. The seminar attracted a full house, with a good cross-section of attendees from different oil and gas related industries.

The seminar was cleverly moderated by Director Stein Gunnar Bondevik of Innovation in Norway Brazil, and the seminar set out with a keynote from Deputy Minister Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde. She stressed that important energy nations like Norway and Brazil have a lot to gain from collaboration, and highlighted our mutual collaboration on several R&D projects and CCS projects.

Jarand Rystad of Rystad Energy continued to give an interesting review of the market situation. Given certain supply and demand assumptions, Rystad Energy predicts a gradual increase of the oil price up to, and maybe slightly above, 100 USD a barrel in five years.

The outlook for Brazil is very promising, with a potential production level of more than the double of Norway’s current and peaking production levels. The Brazilian Subsea market is predicted to stay relatively flat through 2017 and 2018, and then rise to the double by the mid-twenties.

Mr. Joelson Falcao Mendes, Deepwater Executive Manager of Petrobras gave us a good insight into Perobras’ strategic plans and main focus areas for improvement. At a macro level Petrobras aims to cut their debts in half by 2018 and increase production by 33 per cent from 2017 to 2021. This will, among other measures, be done through programmes for risk reduction, risk sharing, cost reductions and field-life extensions.

Mr. Mendes was confident that Petrobras will achieve these goals and was also confident that Brazilian regulators will do their part in easing up on regulatory barriers for increased growth and international collaboration.

The seminar also included an interesting presentation from Aker Solutions and a joint presentation from ClampOn and DNV GL, before the seminar was rounded off by a short presentation of GCE Subsea.