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 Brazilian state-controlled oil and gas multinational Petrobras's president José Sérgio Gabrielli, defended on Tuesday, September 29, a government policy to provide incentives for the national industry to be able to compete at the same level with foreign companies in the research and exploration of oil in the pre-salt layer.
The proposal was made after he participated in a monthly meeting with the board of the National Confederation of Industries (CNI), in which he discussed, at the invitation of the organization's president, Armando Monteiro Neto, the new regulations for exploration of oil and the opportunities for Brazilian companies presented by the pre-salt.
The president of the Infrastructure Theme Council at the CNI, José de Freitas Mascarenhas, considered Gabrielli's presentation satisfactory and announced that the organization would be promoting this Thursday, October 1st, a seminar to discuss the opportunities of the pre-salt layer for national companies.
According to Gabrielli, the "systemic asymmetry" (inequality in competition in the sector as a whole) of national industry for the supply of equipment for research and production in the pre-salt layer may be represented, among other factors, in the unsatisfactory infrastructure in the country, including the port system, high interest rates, the high tax burden and the time environmental licensing takes.
"Other countries provide great support to their industry in the oil sector. It is necessary to adopt special programs to reduce the difference in cost between Brazilian and foreign industries, to maximize the participation of national industry in investment in exploration of the pre-salt layer," said the Petrobras chief.
He added that Petrobras investment, in the pre-salt layer alone, should total US$ 28 billion by 2013 and US$ 111 billion by 2020, generating "gigantic" market and scale for the Brazilian industry.
Total investment by the state-owned oil company over the next five years should reach US$ 157.3 billion, of which US$ 100 billion should go to purchases on the domestic market, representing, according to Gabrielli, average annual investment of US$ 20 billion.
The Petrobras president said that those who complain about the company being the sole operator of the pre-salt layer, as forecasted in the bill with new regulations that was sent to the Lower House, "lack information".
"The fact that we are the operator does not mean we will do it all, but, on the contrary, that we will hire and work with other partners in consortia, sharing costs, technology and decisions, a practice that is common in the global oil industry. Single operators reduce costs, speed up the implementation of infrastructure and the technology transfer process," said Gabrielli.
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