Pre-salt production reached the daily record of 470,000 barrels per day on May 11, 2014,, the Petrobras CEO, Maria das Graças Silva Foster, explained in a presentation during the IV Seminar on Brazilian Energy Sources and Security, promoted by Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) today (June 2) in Rio de Janeiro. The CEO said that "cumulative pre-salt production, from September 2008 to April 2014 had reached 343 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), having grown tenfold from 2010 to 2014”.

In the lecture "The role of pre-salt in Brazilian Energy Security", Graça Foster answered key questions on the pre-salt, which covers 149,000 km2, equivalent to 12 times the size of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Graça Foster pointed out that 27% of proven Petrobras reserves in Brazil (16 billion barrels of oil equivalent) are in the pre-salt layer.

Regarding the best pre-salt surprises so far, the CEO cited the Lula Field Pilot Project: “The initial project indicated that seven wells were needed for the FPSO Cidade de Angra dos Reis to produce its maximum capacity of 100,000 barrels per day. The production per well came in way above the expected 15,000 barrels per day and, with four wells producing 25,000 barrels per day since we started running the platform”.

The Sapinhoá Field Pilot Project example was also shown: “We have Brazil’s highest producing well in this field, the SPS-77, which is producing 36,000 barrels of oil per day. Very soon, we hope to reach 500,000 barrels of pre-salt oil per day when the next well on this platform – the FPSO Cidade de Sao Paulo - comes on-stream. This mark is very important for Petrobras, as it was years ago, when we reached a total production of 500,000 barrels per day, mainly in the Campos Basin fields”.

Investments in Research & Development and Technological Advances

Graça Foster showed that Petrobras has overcome the technological challenges that the pre-salt imposes, continuously investing in Research & Development (R&D). In 2013, the Company was the largest investor in R&D as a percentage of net revenues, compared with seven other major oil companies (majors) worldwide. Investments in R&D have increased nearly six fold in recent years, from US$ 201 million in 2003 to US $ 1.132 billion in 2013.

“These investments have enabled the Company to test special H2S-resistant materials as well as develop processes and equipment with its suppliers to separate carbon dioxide (CO2) from natural gas re-injecting it, when necessary, into the pre-salt reserves", the CEO said.

Technological advances and continuously learning about this province has also allowed effective gains in time and project costs. Up to February 2014, 171 wells had been drilled in the pre-salt province. Drilling times have fallen from 134 days in 2006 to 60 days today.

Pre-salt investments and competitiveness

Cumulative Petrobras investments in the pre-salt were US$ 20 billion between 2004 and 2013. By 2018, that number will have reached US$ 102 billion. Of the US$ 220.6 billion investments in the 2014-2018 Business and Management Plan, US$ 82 billion will be allocated to the pre-salt, US$ 84.7 billion for operations in the post-salt and another US$ 53.9 billion will be invested in other areas of the Company, the Petrobras CEO said.

About the competitiveness of the pre-salt, Graça Foster highlighted the minimum oil price for pre-salt projects to breakeven, comparing it with the minimum price of competing sources such as non-conventional oil. While the Brazilian pre-salt breakeven price is between US$ 41/barrel and US$ 57/barrel, the minimum price of other unconventional oil, such as tight oil (in the U.S.) and oil sands (Canada), are between US$ 50/barrel and US$ 88/barrel.

Pre-salt and Energy Security

According to Graça Foster, fossil energy sources will continue to be predominant in the world in 2030 (77% share), with oil and natural gas accounting for 51% of global energy produced that year, according to an International Energy Agency forecast.

As for Brazil, its sources of energy in 2030 will remain split between renewable and fossil sources, especially oil and natural gas, which together will make up 46% of the Brazilian energy source, according to Petrobras projections.

As such, between 2020 and 2030, total oil production in Brazil is expected to be 5.2 million barrels per day, of which about 3.2 million will come from the pre-salt. The average demand for oil products and the rate at which oil is processed in Brazil should stand at 3.4 million barrels per day.

With these numbers, the CEO showed that Brazil will have supplied all of its domestic oil demand and will even be a major oil exporter, with an average volume of 1.8 million barrels per day between 2020 and 2030.