PETROBRAS is on the cusp of transformation. By 2020, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company – once a mid-table producer – will lay solid claim to a place near the top of oil’s premier league, pumping a projected 6.42 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) a day.
This remarkable change in fortune is not just the result of the discovery of enormous reserves trapped within the country’s offshore pre-salt play (PE 9/11 p10) – present estimates are in the region of 50 billion barrels of oil, 15 billion barrels of which is believed recoverable.
Nor is the transformation attributable to divine intervention, although few in Brazil argue with former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s 2007 claim that the Tupi discovery (now known as Lula) proved God is Brazilian.
A crucial driver – arguably the key factor – of Petrobras’s success is its long-standing commitment to technological innovation...