Three out of four future Petrobras production projects will come from the pre-salt layer. With this, opportunities for the industry and the country tend to multiply, associated with the drive towards innovation and technological development.

A Petrobras celebrates, with its partners, a very special milestone for the national oil industry: the ten years of pre-salt production. Looking at the trajectory of the state-owned company since the beginning of production in that layer until today, when it reached the level of 1,5 million barrels of oil per day, it is undeniable how far it has advanced. Alongside its other assets in deep and ultra-deep waters, the pre-salt layer is Petrobras' flagship. What was once a clue, an idea, has become one of the most competitive offshore areas in the industry because it persisted, with hard work, dedication, study, geology and engineering. Tthree out of four Petrobras future production projects will come from pre-salt. As a result, opportunities for industry and the country tend to multiply, associated with the drive towards innovation and technological development.

If the Petrobras achieved such expressive results because it brought together a high dose of intellectual capital and technical expertise in this project.. Solange Guedes, director of Exploration and Production at Petrobras, followed every step of this journey and can say that this performance is far from trivial. It reflects not only the boldness of its staff, but also the commitment of its academic environment, business partners and the creativity of its chain of goods and services. There are four forces that, integrated in the search for unprecedented solutions, were largely responsible for getting where Petrobras is today.

Exploration and production costs in the pre-salt progressively reduced as new technologies were applied that increased the productivity of the wells, while at the same time the geological knowledge of the area was improved. Today the cost of extraction in that horizon is less than US$ 7 per barrel. If at the beginning of the pre-salt development, there were doubts about the viability of production in such peculiar conditions – in ultra-deep waters, 300 km from the coast and at total depths of up to 7 meters – today, not only has the project’s economy been proven, as well as the return to society and its high future production potential.

This year alone, three large pre-salt production systems were put into operation - P-74, P-69 and, more recently, P-75 -, each with the capacity to produce up to 150 barrels of oil per day (bpd). Each pre-salt well produces an average of 27 bpd, a volume four times greater than wells in the Gulf of Mexico, for example.

Over a decade, Petrobras also accelerated its learning curve in the most diverse technical segments, ranging from seismic to platform design. The culture of innovation rooted in the company and its expertise in deep waters played a fundamental role in this process. The advance was so much in efficiency to the point of drilling a well in the pre-salt today in just three months, against an average of 1 year and a half at the beginning of its activities in that layer. There is no doubt that this advance represents a significant gain, if we consider that the daily cost of a drilling rig is in the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And as this production hub grows, business opportunities expand. Over the last few years, for example, driven by the challenge of developing specific equipment for unique water depth, temperature and pressure conditions, our goods and services industry has taken a significant leap forward. The subsea equipment industry in Brazil, for example, has become globally competitive. It's not little.

And the current moment of the oil sector in Brazil opens up great opportunities. With the regulatory changes that boosted the industry, the intense auction schedule promoted by the ANP and the investments in new production systems, the oil segment regained its momentum. And the projection is that Petrobras will continue to achieve the best results in the pre-salt layer, in a sustainable and progressive way, boosted by the entry into production of eleven more systems by 2022. Undoubtedly, what lies ahead is a promising future. Authorial text by Solange Guedes, Director of Production Exploration at Petrobras.