The Importance of Brazilian Deepwater Activities to the Oil Industry Technological Development

摘要

Since 1977, Petrobras has had to innovate in order to increasernthe Brazilian oil output. The challenges of deepwaters (400 mrn1,000 m) in Brazil had to be faced once their overcomingrnwere the only alternative to reach the desired production levelsrnas well as to attend the required fields development pace.rnAt the time that such problem was identified, the usernof conventional technology would demand both a long leadtimernto the first barrel and the resources were not compatiblernwith the urge of cutting down the oil import, and to therndelicate country foreign cash flow balance. Therefore, the bestrnway to workaround the problem was by using bothrninternational and local innovative technology in its ownrnproduction facilities as a real-scale R&D lab. To achieve thernnecessary technological level, a long path has been trackedrnand several contributions to the oil industry were made.rnThis paper gives a glance on the brazillian offshorernactivities, describing the importance of brazillian explorationrnand production to the oil industry. It also highlights the mainrntechnological developments performed by Petrobras tornproduce in deep and ultra-deep waters, safely and profitably.rnThe technology trends, as well as the future challenges tornsupport the activities are also discussed.