by Juan Forero
December 1, 2009
Every few years, the global search for oil yields what's called an "elephant field" — a pool of oil believed to hold a billion barrels or more. Brazil says it's found several such fields that, once in full production, will make the South American country a major oil player.
Those discoveries have shined a spotlight on a company little known outside petroleum circles: Brazil's state-owned Petrobras, which is now gearing up to pump as much oil as it can.
To drill for its version of El Dorado, Brazil is going to have to go far and deep — 200 miles out into the Atlantic, more than 4 miles down, through swirling seas, rock and a thick cap of salt.
The only way to go after the oil is to build a fleet of floating production platforms and drilling rigs. The construction is taking place in a half-dozen Brazilian shipyards.
Roberto Moro oversees some of the building at the vast shipyard at Angra Dos Reis. A mechanical engineer, he began working at Petrobras nearly 30 years ago, when it was little more than a trading company.
Now, with Petrobras leading the way, Brazil produces 2.4 million barrels a day — just behind longtime oil power Venezuela.
"Petrobras became an international player in the market of oil and gas. Of course, we are very proud of this. Now, we are going to increase the oil production to be oil exporters. This is very important to the country," Moro says.
What Petrobras is doing at Angra is part of an ambitious undertaking, the initial phase of a $174 billion, five-year spending plan.
At Angra, framed by the blue Atlantic and a horseshoe of lush, green hills, 4,000 men build colossal, billion-dollar production platforms. The hulls alone weigh 12,000 tons. They are as tall as a 10-story building and as wide as a football field. Once completed, they will each pump 180,000 barrels of crude a day.
"We are going to have 50,000 tons of steel at the end," Moro says. "It's very, very big."
Brazil already has made important strides, recently becoming self-sufficient in oil production and ending decades of importing.
Then in 2006, Petrobras found Tupi — a pool with up to 8 billion barrels. Other fields in the pre-salt reservoir — so called because the crude lies beneath 6,500 feet of salt — may add billions more.
Petrobras' president, Jose Sergio Gabrielli, says the company will produce 3.9 million barrels a day by 2020.
All this has investors starry-eyed.
Review: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120966523
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