Oct 30, 2019
The oil produced in the pre-salt is increasingly supplying the foreign market and also the cash of Açu Petróleo, owner of the only private oil logistics infrastructure, the T-Oil terminal of Porto do Açu Port. The company’s client list includes large oil companies operating in the region. The top three are Petrobras, Shell and Galp. The main destination is China.
The scenario is so positive that the company is now preparing to put money into import facilities – an estimated investment in the range of $ 1 billion to $ 3 billion, depending on projected demand. The project is still in its early stages, but the first installation licenses are already out.
Meanwhile, the exclusive focus is on shipping oil to other countries. In ten months, the volume handled at the terminal, 44 million barrels, exceeds the total registered in the previous year, 40 million barrels. For the year-end, the outlook is a record of 65 million barrels.
The last oil company to operate at the terminal was Repsol, which shipped about 1 million barrels from the Sapinhoá field, located in the Santos Basin pre-salt. Equinor, owner of the Carcará field, acquired from Petrobras, is also preparing to send its production abroad. The contract with the Norwegian company is finalized. Açu Petróleo estimates that, within seven to ten years, Brazilian exports will triple to around 3 million barrels per day, a volume compatible with that of OPEC countries. The projection is that production growth, mainly concentrated in pre-salt, will exceed domestic consumption, which will force oil companies to increasingly export domestic oil.
“For 30 years there has been no investment in logistics infrastructure. There are only three terminals in the country – two of them owned by Petrobras, of which only one has an export focus and yet its capacity is exhausted. The third is ours, ” said the president of Açu Petróleo, Victor Bonfim. He says that he has received from the oil companies an indication that exports will grow. With an eye on the sector’s expansion, Açu Petróleo plans to build tanks and a pipeline network linking T-Oil to the Petrobras network (the only one installed in the country). ) to internalize oil brought from other countries. The company has already received licensing for the storage, treatment and mixing different types of oil, and is awaiting the license to install the pipeline.
The financing design is already outlined but not yet executed. Bonfim does not detail the source of resources. Nor does it show concern about getting credit for the project. The IPO is ruled out.
Açu Petróleo is a joint partnership between Brazilian Prumo and German Oiltanking. Its handling capacity is 1.2 million barrels per day, of which 250,000 bpd are currently being used. Bonfim highlights the differential of the terminal he presides: “It is the only one in Brazil with 25 meters depth and capacity to receive VLCC class ships”. This means it is suitable for large vessels, the largest in the world.
Source: Terra news
Brazil Energy Insight 
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