Brazilian oil giant Petrobras has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Royal Dutch Shell to establish a long-term mutual collaboration in developing pre-salt fields in Brazil.
Petrobras said last Friday that the deal was signed with Shell Exploration Company (West) B.V., a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, aiming to share best practices and lessons learned regarding cost reductions in well construction activities, logistics, and safety in air transportation.
Also, a committee of representatives of Shell and Petrobras will be set up to jointly assess activities, enabling the continuous development of operational processes.
The document was signed by Petrobras president Pedro Parente and Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden during a visit to Shell’s facilities in the Netherlands by the Brazilian oil company’s executives.
Currently, Petrobras and Shell are partners in ten exploration and production consortia, each one operating in five blocks. The agreement is valid for five years and can be renewed. Shell is a strategic partner of Petrobras in the pre-salt, with minority interests in the Libra and Lula fields and other important areas such as Sapinhoá, Lapa, and Iara, all of which are in Santos Basin.
“Competitive growth of deep-water resources remains key to our company’s strategy for decades to come, and we’re very pleased to advance the technical and operational benefits of our joint-ventures with Petrobras in Brazil,” said Wael Sawan , Executive Vice-President, Deep Water for Shell. “We’ve seen cost, safety, innovative thinking, and production growth evolve in a very positive way. Preferred partnerships and shared expertise are core to that success.”