PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Peter Mello in Brazil

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Brazilian oil company) has announced plans to spend $112 billion over five years to expand operations and the signing of an agreement to study the extraction of oil from shale deposits in Utah, with Mitsui & Co.

Petrobras's oil-shale extraction process uses low temperatures, has no moving parts and produces far lower carbon emissions than making oil from other alternative sources such as coal. Water isn't needed to operate or cool the process; it is a byproduct of their system, said Demarco Epifanio, the Petrobras International Unit executive responsible for the project.

The technology for such exploration has been developed in Brazil for the past 30 years, but expansion of shale-oil output in Brazil has been limited by cheaper sources of oil from the country's offshore fields. Petrobras refines kerosene, fuel oil, cooking gas, and naphtha, a raw material for plastics production from shale in Brazil.

Oil shale is sedimentary rock which contains significant amounts of kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds), from which one can extract liquid hydrocarbons. After mining from under the ground, synthetic crude oil is derived by thermal decomposition (retorting) from oil shale ore. Global oil shale deposits are estimated as equivalent to more than 2 trillion barrels of oil including major deposits in the United States corresponding to 70% of global deposits.

Petrobras and Mitsui each have the right to as much as 20 percent of Oil Shale Exploration, the largest non-government holder of oil-shale rights in Utah. The U.S. has an estimated 2.5 trillion barrels of oil shale, more than double the world's 1 trillion barrels of conventional oil reserves, according to Daniel Elcan chief executive officer of Oil Shale Exploration.

Other information may be found at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a7Lc_xpzhXK0

http://www.mitsui.co.jp/en/release/2008/1188414_2849.html

(English)

Peter Mello, SpS, PMP International Correspondent - Brazil Based in São Paulo State Peter Mello, SpS, PMP is an International Correspondent for PMForum in Brasil. He is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and a Senior Consultant for X25 Treinamento e Consultoria (X25), based in Brasilia, Brazil. He provides project management training and consulting services to governmental and industrial organizations in Brazil. Peter presently works with a portfolio of projects in the Petroleum & Gas industry. His professional experience also includes project and risk management for large projects in the IT Industry and Government, and scheduling optimization using critical chain and Success Driven Project Management concepts. More information about Peter can be seen at http://www.pmforum.org/pm%20forum%20team/index.htm. He can be contacted at peter.mello@x25.com.br.