Brazil should attract 50% of world investment in the subsea market for oil and gas. The assessment is by Rachid Félix, chairperson of session 3 of the SPE Brazil Subsea Symposium: Unleashing the potential of Subsea 4.0​​​​​​​​​​​​​, which takes place on June 18 and 19, at Firjan, in Rio de Janeiro.

They will be discussed on the 18th and 19th of this month, at Firjan, in Rio de Janeiro, how the subsea industry can develop new technologies in a naturally conservative environment, since risks and accidents are very expensive for the entire industry. According to Felix, the idea of ​​the event is to discuss how to reconcile security with the development of new technologies.

“This is a big challenge. We have to face it. The faster we want to go, the greater the challenge to be overcome”, says Félix.

The optimization of new technologies will be another topic discussed at the event. According to Felix, the business model in the oil sector has changed profoundly after the last crisis, as a result, new technologies are needed and shorter development times are needed.

“The current scenario makes the oil business demand viability – not only in the long term – but also in the short term. The survival of the energy use model is in the process of changing”, said Félix.

Felix points out that, with the recent changes in Brazilian regulation, the country will have a range of operators, from majors to independent companies. The vision is that every change will help in the implementation of new technologies. It sees new developments coming even from independent companies.

“This is the great attraction of this structural change. Before, the Brazilian market was quite slow. With the opening of the market, we will also have large companies but with different cultures.

With different problems and solutions. And we're also going to start to see small companies developing projects quickly. We'll go from one operator to maybe 15 or 20 very quickly,” he says.

The SPE Brazil Subsea Symposium is a continuation of several forums that have been taking place for many years where companies and specialists come together to discuss openly. “It is effectively a technological discussion forum for the subsea area”, says Rachid.

Oil is no longer a scarce resource and exists in abundance. The cost of withdrawing it – in comparison with other energy sources is today the main challenge – and will move the industry to accelerate the reduction of production costs, the increase of safety and system efficiency. This will also happen in the subsea.

“This dilemma is always accelerated by a beautiful competition, which is always positive. The world moves faster with competition”, concludes Félix.

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by epbr