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Despite the strong attraction of foreign companies in the 19 auctions held to date, the fields operated by the state-owned company were responsible in April for 95% of national production, which was 3,3 million barrels of oil and gas.
Brazil arrives this weekend at the 20th year after its first auction of oil area concessions after the end of the monopoly, still with a strong predominance of Petrobras in the operations of the sector. According to experts, the slow pace of private expansion in this segment reflects nationalist policies adopted in the Lula and Dilma governments, which gave Petrobras exclusivity in the pre-salt operation and suspended the holding of auctions for five years, limiting access to reserves.
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The first round of bidding by the ANP (National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels) was held amidst protests at a luxury hotel in the south zone of Rio on June 15 and 16, 1999. The agency awarded 12 of the 36 areas auctioned, and 13 foreign companies participated in the competition. And it generated R$ 487 million in revenue (the equivalent of R$ 1,6 billion today), the result was considered a success at the time.
The second cycle, after the pre-salt, was marked by a retreat in the effort to attract private capital. After confirmation of the discovery of the mega Lula field, now called Búzios, the government decided to review the sector's rules and interrupted auctions for five years, which led to a process of demobilization of foreign companies in the country.
The number of rigs and drilling in activity in Brazil, which reached 90 at the beginning of the decade, is around 2019 at the beginning of 10, according to data compiled by the American Baker Hughes.
Considering previous auctions, the investment potential reaches BRL 1,8 trillion, with around 60 platforms. Norwegian Equinor, for example, predicts five wells in the Brazilian pre-salt over the next three years and expects to reach 2030 producing between 300 and 500 barrels per day in the country. Exxon also talks about five wells between this year and next.
“This future has already been contracted”, says the executive secretary of the IBP (the institute that brings together the oil companies), Antônio Guimarães. “If you go back to investing US$ 40 billion (R$ 160 billion) per year, which is the perspective for 2022 or 2023, this sector will be an engine of the Brazilian economy.”
The general director of the ANP, Décio Oddone, says that the challenge now is to encourage the creation and attraction of independent companies to produce in small and medium-sized fields, which was also one of Zylbersztajn's goals 20 years ago.
The plan stopped with Petrobras' resistance to opening up space in the segment. The ANP determined that Petrobras sell by the end of the year areas in which it is no longer interested in investing – the state-owned company currently has 23 open processes for the sale of assets in onshore fields or in shallow waters – and decided to keep all areas on permanent offer. land they have at hand.
With the fields sold by Petrobras, says Oddone, small companies will be able to raise money to acquire new exploratory projects on land and shallow waters that are currently not interesting for large companies.
“The importance of the diversity of companies is the regionalized impact of the activity, with the generation of jobs and local businesses”, he defends.
