According to Petrobras and many other players involved in the O&G market, Rio de Janeiro is the new oil capital of the world.
Now that actually may come to be, but there is still a ways to go. As it is, we are all happy campers down here. It is not hard to tell that the simple possibility of this happening is blowing minds and aggravating some players, especially in Houston. The fact is that what goes up must eventually come down and that´s just the way it is.
I must admit that for a Brazilian like me, a middle class wanna be, the numbers are quite thrilling. However, there is no running from the fact that the challenges are many. You can have all the oil in the world, but if you don’t have a good upstream and downstream structure, highly trained man power (O&G and Maritime) and efficient logistics, things can go sour, real quick.
This week two important O&G and Maritime events happened in Rio, at this point they basically walk hand in hand as one needs the other to survive and prosper. There was the massive Rio Oil & Gas extravaganza, which many big shots in the industry claimed is rivaling the OTC, not to mention the Petrobras director that simply stated that the OTC 2011 should be in Rio. Not a smaller regional OTC as is already planned but the main event itself! Well I guess that´s a bit over my pay grade, but maybe he has a point in that presently the main investments are happening here and not at the GOM.
The other important event, although much smaller and more exclusive, was the 7th Annual Latin America Ship & Offshore Finance Forum, which was held this Thursday and Friday at the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro. The forum brought together in one venue, O&G players, ship brokers, maritime lawyers, major investors, investment banks and shipyard owners to discuss the pros and cons of the O&G and maritime markets in Brazil, looking to find solutions to the many challenges posed by the massive growth that is taking place in Brazil.
It was a great success, something like a think tank and a vital networking medium that was desperately needed and that undoubtedly will help the county and the markets to maintain this growth by addressing the vital challenges ahead of us. In my opinion the most important factor was to see these different players and in many cases competitors looking to work together towards a common goal, which in very simplistic terms could be defined as making this marked growth viable, attaining profits from it in an organized and environmentally friendly manners, which will guarantee not only the market growth but the growth of the country along with the financial and social stability of Brazil as a whole.
Thank you very much for Marine Money Magazine, Petrobras and all the other event sponsors for this important initiative and for bringing the event back to Brazil where it belongs.
Claudio Paschoa
photo courtesy of Seadrill