Reaching sustainable self-sufficiency has always been a goal for Brazil and, thus, Petrobras; it means reducing the country’s vulnerability to international oil market fluctuations, i.e., Petrobras has to keep production above demand in the long run. Petrobras' trajectory until it achieved self-sufficiency was marked by large investments in technological advancements, by deepwater drilling records, and by the countless improvements it made in its many activities.

Brazil's most important oil province, the Campos Basin, was discovered in 1974. This was a mark towards self-sufficiency. In the following years, Petrobras received the OTC award twice for the technological innovations it made in the giant Roncador field production project, in the Campos Basin.

In the late 1970s, the average Brazilian production was 200,000 barrels a day, while consumption reached 1,115,000 barrels per day. The challenge then became discovering large reserves to increase production. That was when the company launched the Oil Sector Action Plan, which defined resources to increase production already aiming at self-sufficiency.

In the 1990s, Petrobras became the world’s main deepwater producer, with about 65% of the area of its offshore exploratory blocks located at depths of more than 400 m. This was the outcome of technological investments and programs such as the Procap – program for the Technological Development Program for Deepwater Exploration Systems –, aimed at improving the company's technical competency in producing oil and natural gas in deep waters. The positive results led the company to launch the Procap 2000 and, later, in 2000, the Procap 3000, focused on ultra-deepwater exploration.

The domestic oil production reached the 1.54-million-barrel-a-day mark in 2003, about 91% of the country’s byproduct demand. The domestic production goal set forth by Petrobras’ 2015 Strategic Plan is 2.3 million barrels per day by 2010. To achieve this feat, 15 large oil production projects will be deployed by 2008.

PETROBRAS-50

The unit is part of an oil system that includes 34 production units, fixed and floating, and produces about 1.4 million barrels of oil per day. The platform was responsible for increasing Brazil’s oil and gas production figures by 7% in 2006, and it will soon also be able to compress 6,000,000 cubic meters of gas a day and to store 1.6 million barrels of oil. In partnership with Repsol YPF, which owns 10% of the project, Petrobras invested one $1.95 billion to develop the field. This total includes expenses with drills, drilling, and with the vessel’s conversion, which cost about $650 million.

Forecasts up to 2010

In addition to the P-50, another three, smaller platforms also went into operation in 2006:
P-34 (60,000 barrels per day), in the Jubarte Field; SSP-300 (20,000 barrels per day), in the Piranema Field; and the FPSO Capixaba (100,000 barrels per day), in the Golfinho Field. At this same field, the FPSO Cidade de Vitória (100,000 barrels per day) will go into operation in 2007.

These platforms will allow Petrobras to wrap 2006 up with an average daily production of 1,910,000 barrels – above the national oil demand. The expectation is that by 2010, the average production will gradually increase more than consumption every year. By the end of 2008, for example, the projections indicate the average consumption will be some 2,000,000 barrels a day, while production is expected to top out at 2,100,000 barrels a day.

Projections for 2010 are even more optimistic. It is estimated the average national production will reach 2,300,000 barrels a day, while consumption is forecast to be around 2,060,000 a day. The 2006-2010 Business Plan foresees investments in the order of $28 billion in exploration and production to consolidate self-sufficiency and obtain the surplus that will allow us to even plan oil exports or improve our negotiation position in the international market.