Petrobras is to invest upwards of $4.5 billion in R&D in the coming five years. The investment is geared at advancing ultra-deepwater oil production. The Brazilian state owned energy firm has instituted collaborative research and development programs with Brazilian Varsities to deal with the challenges of deep sea drilling.

Petrobras executive manager of research and development, Carlos Fraga noted that drilling through the subsalt may not be an easy task. In that regard, Fraga commented that Petrobras will require particular technology to achieve this. The strategy is to have one of the most important research and development centers for oil and gas worldwide, he said.

Petrobras R&D has given birth to innovations such as the development of materials that can resist corrosion under the heavy pressure of ultra-deep waters and new methods for interpreting seismic data needed for the offshore region known as the subsalt, which Brazil hopes will turn it into a major oil exporter. Brazilian government regulations require oil companies to invest 1 per cent of gross revenues from high-productivity fields in research and development.

Petrobras expects it will invest between $800 million and $900 million per year over the next five years. Other companies intent on establishing R&D centers in Brazil to tackle deep water drilling include IBM, Schlumberger Ltd and General Electric Co.  Petrobras last year inaugurated a $700 million expansion of its Cenpes research facility.

Under its R&D coordinated program with Universities, the institutions are to research on how ocean waves and currents affect operations of floating platforms that extract oil from under the sea while anchored hundreds of kilometers from the coast. Engineers at a research lab at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro test model platforms in a wave pool that simulate the motion of ships under different conditions.

A project at a research facility at the University of Sao Paulo uses massive computing capacity to create virtual models of ocean conditions. Brazil hopes to speed up its pace of technological innovation, which lags behind emerging market rivals. Both India and China generally file a considerably greater number of international patents than Brazil.

Petrobras is the largest company in Latin America by market capitalization and revenue, and the largest company headquartered in the Southern Hemisphere by market value. It is based in Rio de Janeiro.

7 Feb 2011.