Petrobras Adds Offshore Wind to 2019-2023 Plan, Earmarks $0.4Bn for Renewables

Brazilian oil and gas company Petrobras will invest USD 417 million (approx. EUR 365 million) in wind energy, solar energy and biofuels from 2019 to 2023.

This has been set out in the company’s new Business and Management Plan (BMP), released on 5 December together with its 2040 Strategic Plan, of which the BMP is an integral part. Petrobras is setting aside a total of USD 84.1 billion (approx. EUR 73.7 billion) for investments during the upcoming five-year period.

Compared to the massive chunk that will be poured into the company’s core business – exploration and production (E&P) – the planned investment in wind, solar and biofules totalling USD 0.4 billion might not seem much.

However, given that in its previous BMP (2018-2022) Petrobras did not outline a specific investment of this kind, the details from the latest plan could mark Petrobras now putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to offshore wind, as well as other renewable energy developments.

Namely, the Brazilian oil and gas major informed in August 2018 that it was developing a pilot offshore wind farm off the Guamaré municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, aiming to have the project up and running in 2022.

The following month, the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Norway-headquartered oil & gas and offshore wind player Equinor, under which the two parties agreed to collaborate on the development of offshore wind in Brazil.

In July, Petrobras signed an MoU with the French companies Total and Total Eren to analyse a joint business development in solar energy and onshore wind energy segments in Brazil.

Even though the earlier BMP did not specify an investment in offshore wind and other renewables, one of the strategic points was to prepare the company for a future based on a low-carbon economy, thus encompassing the company’s recent moves in the sector.

The new plan also states Petrobras will be looking at offshore wind power projects over the next decade.

Overall, Petrobras’s plans for the following five years are more ambitious than those set out in its 2018-2022 BMP, which comprised a total investment of USD 74.5 billion (approx. EUR 65.2 billion).

The previous BMP, which maintained the same level of investments in relation to BMP 2017-2021, had earmarked 81% of the total amount for E&P [around USD 60.3 billion/EUR 52.8 billion].

As of next year, Petrobras will back its E&P operations with USD 68 billion (approx. EUR 59.6 billion) and plans to boost output by putting 13 floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) units in production, seven of which it has yet to order, as reported by our sister site Offshore Energy Today.

Petrobras’s 2040 Strategic Plan sees it as an integrated energy company still focused on oil and gas, but with more room for other energy sources to be added to the portfolio until 2040.

In the renewables segment, the aim of the strategic plan is for Petrobras to operate in profitable renewable energy businesses, with focus on wind and solar energy in Brazil.

Offshore WIND staff