By Nihan Cabbaroglu
ISTANBUL
Accusations that the former director of Brazil’s state owned oil giant was involved in a ten year kickback scheme along with around 40 politicians, will not affect the companies' strategic five-year plan, said a company official on Monday.
Brazilian political magazine Veja claimed two weeks ago that former Petrobras director, Paulo Roberto Costa, in jail since March pending an investigation into his role in a kickback scandal, had given the names of more than 40 major politicians who reportedly received billions of dollars in bribes.
Among them were members of the governing Workers Party and groups which back President Dilma Rousseff.
But the list of names published by Veja magazine also included rivals of Ms Rousseff.
The timing of these current corruption allegations was intended to maximize damage to current president Rousseff's re-election campaign say commentators.
Company official, Sylvia Anjos said the newspaper will pay compensation to the former director. "He won the case already, but they insist in their allegations, because of the election. They are going to lose but by the time he wins, there will only be a small note in the newspaper about the mistake.”
- Five-year strategic plan
Petrobras has a five-year strategic plan, which is to invest 220 million dollars in developing the pre-salt oil reserves, said Anjos, referring to the oil reserves deep under thick layers of rock and salt.
In Brazil offshore fields, recoverable oil and natural gas reserves in pre-salt might be more than 50 billion barrels of oil, according to the U.S Energy Information Administration. The first discovery of the potential there has been made eight years ago.
“We are producing now a record in pre-salt area” said Anjos, “Almost 600 thousand barrels a day in less than eight years, which is amazing”.
The average daily production from the reservoirs in pre-salt grew tenfold from 2010 to 2014, according to Petrobras data. Four years ago, the average daily production was only 42 thousand barrels. Now, approximately 20 percent of Petrobras' total production is from the pre-salt area, which is expected to reach 52 percent in 2018.
Anjos said Petrobras produces 2.2 million barrels a day of oil now and it plans to increase it to more than 3 million by 2020.
She also said producing natural gas is in their plan.
There is associated gas in the pre-salt and when they start producing, they aim to decrease high-priced imports of natural gas to Brazil, said Anjos, and added that the gas in Brazil will be used in petrochemicals and fertilizers and not for energy.
Brazil imported 13.6 million cubic meters of dry natural gas in 2012, from which the 75 percent is from Bolivia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The general manager said that Petrobras is now investing in onshore areas to explore natural gas. "Oil was always the goal, but now gas is also Petrobras' goal", she said.
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