Petrobras CEO Maria das Graças Silva Foster was announced winner of the Global Pacific & Partners Award in the Offshore/Deepwater Player category at the 20th Latin Oil Week, an event held at the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro (Wednesday, 3 Sep). Awards were made to the most outstanding Latin American companies in their sectors to celebrate Global Pacific & Partners’ 20-year presence in Brazil. 

Graça Foster also received an honorable mention as a Patron of the Global Women Petroleum & Energy Club, an association created to bring together high-profile women in the oil and gas sector throughout the world. Petrobras’ Director of Exploration and Production, José Formigli, was present at the awards ceremony. “Petrobras thanks you very much for this additional award, which will encourage us to continue with our efforts and to believe more in ourselves, in the people who have worked with us and especially in our country. I am also very proud of the honorable mention,” said Graça Foster during a speech in the event’s opening session.

She made a point of stressing the growth in Petrobras’ output for seven consecutive months. “The August figures aren’t yet finalized, but we are continuing to grow. We have hit a new record in the pre-salt, and yesterday, when we opened the newspapers, we saw information from the National Oil, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency reporting another record in oil and gas production in the country. In all, 2.82 million barrels of oil equivalent per day were produced in July, and August was certainly much better. All this makes us very enthusiastic. Petrobras is enthusiastic about the present and strongly believes in the future of the Brazilian oil industry,” she said.

Latin Oil Week is an annual event focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean, and celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. The event discusses the outlook for oil, gas and energy in the region and the strategies of public and private sector companies. It paints short- and long-term pictures of exploration, development, investments, prospects, potential impacts, and how companies, government agencies and licensing authorities can remodel Latin America’s presence in the oil industry.

This year’s 3-day Latin Oil Week ended today (3 Sept) and featured more than 30 speakers and 250 participants, including key figures in the Latin American oil industry from countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, French Guiana, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Suriname, as well as Brazil. Representatives of companies based in other countries, including Germany, Canada, the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom also participated in the event. Brazilian speakers included the president of Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A., Oswaldo Pedrosa, who talked about pre-salt opportunities; Helder Queiroz Pinto Jr., director of the National Oil, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency, who talked about shale gas exploration in Brazil; and Karine Fragoso, operational manager of Oil and Gas Strategies at Firjan, who spoke about the oil and gas industry in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Recognition – In May of this year, Graça Foster was included for the third year running in the list of the world’s 100 most powerful women produced by Forbes magazine. In March, she was awarded Imprensa magazine’s Personality of the Year Women’s Trophy after a unanimous vote by the journalists on the selection panel. In February, she featured in broadcaster CNBC’s list of the business world’s 200 most influential people over the last 25 years. Also in February, she was ranked fourth in a list of the world’s 50 most powerful business women produced by Fortune magazine.

In December 2013, British publication Lloyd’s List ranked Graça Foster among the 100 most influential people in the shipbuilding industry. In August 2013, she was rated the best CEO in the Latin American oil, gas and petrochemicals sector by Institutional Investor magazine. In May 2013, Forbes magazine ranked her among the world’s 20 most powerful women and the third most influential woman in business.

In Amsterdam on October 28, she will be presented with the 2014 Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, the top award given by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), recognizing professionals who have made an exceptional contribution to the global oil and gas industry. This is the first time that a Brazilian professional in the field will have received this award.