Brasil Offshore Conference 2013 in Macaé

By Jack Whibley, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brasil Offshore International Conference and Fair for the oil and gas sector returns to Macaé June 11th-14th and is expected to welcome over 50,000 visitors through its doors. With around 800 exhibitors also due to attend, the Macaé conference, held every two years, is the third largest offshore event in the world.

Macaé is a booming oil town just 180km northeast of Rio de Janeiro city, about a three hour drive. It is the main operational base for exploration, drilling and extraction of more than eighty percent of the total oil currently produced in Brazil.

Over 3,500 manufacturing, services, and support companies are based in the Macaé area and they will be joined by companies from around the world this week, all keen to show off their latest products and services. Over 30 countries were represented at the last Conference in 2011 and this year the number is due to increase.

Lincoln Weinhardt, Petrobras’ Communication Manager in the Campos Basin commented, “Petrobras has sponsored and stimulated the event for ten years, and this edition is more dynamic, with larger companies, and even the foreign ones are inserted in the local content.”

The Brasil Offshore is made up of two components: a fair, where companies can exhibit their products and promote their services, as well as meet prospective new clients and discuss latest developments with their current clients. The exhibitors come from all oil related sectors and range from equipment manufacturers over pipeline systems to seismic survey services.

Marion Andonian Miranda, relationship manager at Europartner, is hoping to make new contacts at the fair. “This is one of the most important fairs in oil and gas and Rio is famous worldwide in this area. There is always a great atmosphere in that kind of events and we meet people from everywhere and there’s always some opportunities for business!” she tells The Rio Times.

The second component of Brasil Offshore is a conference, where industry leaders will focus on the important issue of integrity in offshore operations this year. It will feature nearly forty high-level speakers, which will also discuss market trends and new opportunities.

For attendees, both sides of Brasil Offshore offers networking opportunities with the industry’s main players and chances to learn about the newest developments in the market in order to improve competitiveness.

David Brecknock of Perenco, an independent oil and gas company operating in sixteen countries worldwide told The Rio Times about the importance of the conference, “It’s a good opportunity for networking and for speaking to technical experts [and] suppliers who are based both inside and outside Brazil.  Also to see what new offshore technology has been recently used in the Brazilian offshore market.”

Exhibitors and attendees will be hoping to build their existing client base by making new business relationships at the conference. Brecknock continues, “There are a lot of sub-contractors and smaller oilfield suppliers and service companies that will use the conference to generate business.  I’d say it’s critically important to some of those suppliers.”

One of those businesses that will be exhibiting this week is Greene’s Energy Group. Greene’s provides integrated tools and services to the offshore industry and, while headquartered in Houston, Texas has an operations base in Macaé. Donald Bearb, Assets Manager at the company, spoke to The Rio Times about what they hoped to achieve at the event. “We wish to increase our client base, find new opportunities and discover new technologies to improve our existing tools /services.”

In terms of the importance of the event to businesses such as Greene’s, Bearb says that the conference is “The best available informal environment to show all services and tools Greene’s has to offer.”  

The conference is also important to Macaé’s hotel industry. Bruno Schmidt, Commercial Manager from G-Comex Óleo e Gás, who splits his time between Macaé and Rio and who will be attending the conference told The Rio Times that “the event attracts so many people to Macaé that hotel rooms are being offered for up to R$1,000 per night.”