Brazil’s oil and gas watchdog ANP approved the geological and economic studies of three exploration blocks in the Santos basin pre-salt.
The Amazonita, Safira Leste and Safira Oeste blocks will now be sent to the mines and energy ministry (MME) to analyze including them in future bidding rounds.
The total area of the three blocks is approximately 11,300km2 and their oil potential was estimated at 16.8Bboe (billion barrels of oil equivalent). The total estimated risked volume is 3.6Bboe.
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TechnipFMC has been awarded a contract to supply flexible pipes to federal oil company Petrobras for pre-salt fields.
The company will design, engineer and manufacture 14km of gas injection riser pipes. TechnipFMC will also supply associated services including packing and storage.
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Petrobras signed a memorandum of understanding with miner Vale to develop low-carbon solutions.
The partnership will last two years and provides for the assessment of joint decarbonization opportunities, coering the development of sustainable fuel initiatives – such as hydrogen, green methanol, biobunker, green ammonia and renewable diesel – and CO2 capture and storage technologies.
The initiative also includes an assessment of potential commercial agreements for the supply of low-carbon fuels produced by Petrobras for Vale’s operations.
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Rio Grande do Norte state’s gas distributor Potigás has launched a public call for the purchase of 140,000m3/d from January 1, 2024, valid for five years.
Potigás currently has natural gas supply contracts with Potiguar E&P (PetroRecôncavo), Petrobras and Portugal’s Galp.
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RZK Energia has completed the acquisition of the Bromélia biogas power plant in Rio de Janeiro state.
The plant uses biogas obtained from the landfill located in the municipality of Macaé
With the purchase, RZK, which had 20 plants in operation, including solar and biogas for the distributed generation market, adds another 2MW of capacity to its portfolio, reaching a ttal of 92MW.
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Comerc Energia and Neoenergia formed a joint venture for the development of PV solar power plants for distributed generation (DG).
The partnership looks to invest around 500mn reais (US$100mn) to install plants in the states of Bahia, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco and the federal district.
The partnership was signed as a shared holding and intends to operate photovoltaic units dedicated to shared generation, aimed at low-voltage consumers such as businesses, rural properties and residential properties.
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National grid operator ONS increased the limit for exporting energy from the northeast to the southeast/center-west and the north regions from the current 8,000MW to 10,800MW.
After an August 15 blackout, the export limits were reduced as part of a conservative operating policy aimed at ensuring the balance of the national grid until the causes of the disturbance were identified.
ONS’s preliminary report points to a misalignment in the processng of data sent by generating units as the cause of the outage.
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ISA-CTEEP plans to invest 10bn reais in energy transmission projects contracted via auctions held by power regulator Aneel by 2028.
In addition, the company is expected to invest 5bn reais in reinforcements and improvements over the period.
On Wednesday, ISA signed the concession contracts for lots 1 (Serra Dourada), 7 (Itatiaia) and 9 (Água Vermelha) won in the first transmission auction in 2023.
The projects will require total investment of 5.6bn reais.
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A survey by NeoCharge shows that the number of electric vehicles in Brazil rose from 120,518 to 157,038 between December 2022 and July 2023.
The number of 100% electric cars rose from 10,612 to 15,285, plug-in hybrids jumped from 25,954 to 35,407 units, and hybrids from 83,952 to 106,346.
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