Tuesday, 22 August 2017 17:34
Petrobras expects to close the charter contract for the Libra pilot project later this year, Libra’s General Deployment Project Manager Osmond Coelho Junior said on Tuesday.
According to him, despite the easing of the local content rules proposed by the National Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP), the company maintains the request for a waiver (pardon for failure to fulfill the nationalization commitments).”We expect to receive answer from the ANP still in September, to go ahead [with the hiring], depending on the response. It’s the posture we have today, “he told reporters after attending the O & G TechWeek event hosted by the Brazilian Petroleum Institute (IBP) in Rio.
According to Coelho Junior, the proposal of the ANP to relax the rules of local content is attractive, but there are still uncertainties about when it would begin to apply. “The new model is under discussion, it will still go through public hearing. As it stands today, it seems a very attractive idea for us to migrate [to the new percentages], but I have some fear of when [the regulation] will be sanctioned. So the decision on the ‘waiver’ is important for us to decide [on the investment], “he said.
According to the agency’s proposal, the oil companies will have two alternatives: either they opt for the new percentages of local content, lower, but they give up the right to ask for ‘waiver’ in the future; Or maintain the current percentages, maintaining the right to ask for forgiveness for non-compliance with nationalization rates – a process that will still be regulated.
According to him, the second platform (Libra 2) is still in the approval phase of the conceptual project by the partners. The expectation is to be able to start the bidding to hire the vessel by the end of the year. “It depends on the answer we will have [about] Libra 1, and about this possibility [of joining the] new model of local content,” he said. The intention is to hire a platform “in line” with the capacity of the first, of 180 thousand barrels per day.
Until October, Petrobras is expected to begin production of the long-term test of Libra, which will have a capacity of 50,000 barrels per day. According to the manager, the expectation is that only one well will produce about 35 thousand barrels per day and the FPSO will be filled quickly.
Source: Valor
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