Petrobrás Will Shut Down at Least 45 Offshore Production Platforms in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At least 45 oil and natural gas production platforms installed in Northeastern and Southeastern Brazilian states will be shut down this month. In a letter to oil worker unions, Petrobrás announced the shutdown of units, which will imply layoffs and personnel reassignments.

However, these measures contribute little to the target of cutting 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) announced to tackle the crisis. Many platforms are expected to be halted, and hundreds of employees laid off, in the coming months due to a lack of in-house relocation places.

The production cut is part of a number of measures being adopted by the company to tackle the current oil crisis, in which the price of a barrel has dropped to US$20. According to the company, with this price, many of its assets have become unfeasible and, now more than ever, the company’s focus has become the deep water pre-salt fields.

Not even the Campos Basin – which has accounted for 80 percent of the country’s output and where there are still massive areas in operation – is off the cutting radar of the company’s Board. For the time being, the cuts in operations off the Rio de Janeiro coast have been minor, but specialists and internal sources from the company say that the reduction will be deeper in Rio de Janeiro, until the 200,000 bpd are reached.

The 45 platforms halted so far, installed in shallow waters, add up to little more than a 10,000 bpd production, the equivalent of five percent of the targeted cutt. In the Campos Basin, six units, which together produce 5.4 thousand barrels per day, have been shut down, according to data in the report published by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).

In the Ceará-Piauí basin, nine more units will be shut down in four fields, which represents 2,400 bpd. In terms of the number of platforms, the state most affected was Rio Grande do Norte, with 24 units in the Potiguar basis, which total 2,400 bpd.

The cuts in the three basins – Campos, Ceará-Piauí and Potiguar – therefore represent production of 10,300 bpd. There are still six production units in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, but there are no official data on the volumes produced by these units. In all, 3,600 bpd are extracted in the region.

Workers also report the shutdown of two platforms in the Campos Basin, the P-43 and P-48, installed in the Barracuda field, which total 43,500 bpd; however, the shutdown of these units has not yet been formally announced.

In the letter, the company offers three options to the employees of units temporarily shut down: internal relocation according to the company’s needs; adherence to the voluntary resignation plan; and individual termination by agreement.

The unions are concerned with the company’s ability to retain the large number of employees who have been left idle, a number that tends to grow even more as the worldwide oil glut continues to rise.

Source: O Estado de S. Paulo