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Petrobras informs that oil in the Northeast came from three fields in Venezuela

Written by Paulo Nogueira
Published 27/10/2019 às 09:19

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Petrobras Northeast oil Venezuela

Petrobras flew over the Northeast coast, but was unable to identify the path of oil, which makes it impossible to install containment barriers.

This Friday, the 25th, Petrobras concluded that the The oil that has reached the beaches of the Northeast since the end of August is a mix of production from three fields in Venezuela. According to the state-owned company, the investigations also point to a ship spillage as a probable origin.

This does not mean that Venezuela is directly responsible for the oil spill on the Brazilian coast, since the material may have been shipped from any source, including illegal vessels.

The conjecture that the oil launched in the Brazilian sea is the result of the criminal operation of a "ghost ship" is, for the Navy, one of the most likely currently because, according to technical evaluations, the oil that contaminates the beaches of the Northeast is not purchased by any other country of the world.

“Each oil or petroleum has a geochemical signature based on its composition, which is very specific. That's why we can find out if the oil came from Venezuela, from the Santos basin, from Saudi Arabia (including the wells). There are world banks that have this geochemical signature of the oil. And it's an easy analysis to do and identify the origin” explains Vanessa Hatje, specialist in Chemical Oceanography at the Federal University of Bahia.

“We compared the origin analysis with more than 30 samples and concluded that it is from three Venezuelan fields, a blend [mixture] of the oil there,” said Eberaldo, director of Corporate Affairs at the company, during a meeting that detailed the result of the company in the third quarter.

The executive said that Petrobras compared fighting the leak to "looking for a needle in a haystack", since the origin is not known.

Neto reinforced that the lack of knowledge about the source of the leak makes the combat strategy difficult, since it is only possible to identify the product when it reaches the beaches.

The company flew over the Northeast coast, but was unable to identify the path of the oil. He also pointed out that it is not possible to install containment barriers to prevent the stains from touching the coast.

“When it leaks from a production facility, we detect the source and are able to fight it easier. When you don't have the origin factor, you don't know how it was and when it was, it's like [looking for] a needle in a haystack ”, he explained.

 

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Paulo Nogueira

With a technical background, I worked in the offshore oil and gas market for a few years. Today, my team and I are dedicated to bringing information from the Brazilian energy sector and the world, always with credible and up-to-date sources.

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