The Brazilian natural gas production growth curve is decoupling from oil’s. Since January 2012, when the country achieved the last monthly record of oil production (2.231 million barrels per day), that indicator has continued to fall and currently stands at 1.974 million barrels/day (11% less than the record level). In the same period, the country’s natural gas production hit seven monthly records and reached 78.5 million cubic meters per day, 10.4% more than the volume recorded early last year.
According to Marcelo Colomer, an expert at UFRJ’s Energy Economy group, about 85 % of the Brazilian production of natural gas depends directly on oil production, by means of associated natural gas. “The trend is natural gas production becoming a little more independent," he says.
The decoupling of natural gas and oil production will also depend on the successful exploration of areas that will be offered at the 12th Round of Auctions of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP). Scheduled for November, the auctions will offer blocks with potential for the development of unconventional resources such as shale gas, whose production is booming with competitive costs in the US.
Gas Energy consulting firm director Marco Tavares also believes the growth of natural gas production in the country. According to him, the expansion of oil and gas is shifting from the Campos Basin to the Santos Basin, where the gas/oil ratio – which indicates the amount of gas produced for the same volume of oil – is greater.
Mr. Tavares says that, in the best case, the Campos Basin produces 80 meters cubic of gas for each cubic meter of oil. The pre-salt layer of the Santos Basin has an average of 220 cubic meters per cubic meter of oil after carbon dioxide is filtered out.
What now is a positive factor may turn into a problem. Brazil will probably double its domestic production of natural gas by 2020, but there is not a market for this energy resource at its current prices, which are considered high.
Source: Valor Economico
