With an eye on the pre-salt layer, SP outlines plan to attract companies
Valor Econômico 03/16/2009
With an eye on the ambitious project of investment of Petrobrás in the Basin of Santos, where US$ 18.6 billion must be invested in the pre-salt fields until 2013, the government of São Paulo is already getting itself together to make a plan of actions that allows the State to become attractive to the oil and gas companies. Nine groups, formed by representatives of the state secretariats, entrepreneurs and academics, are studying the potential of industrial development in the coast of São Paulo and the problems that may become bottlenecks to such activity, considering the necessity of flowing the products and the demand for workforce, among other points. According to José Roberto dos Santos, coordinator of the Special Commission for the Oil and Natural Gas (Cesperg) of the State, who integrates the study group, the volume of resources that must get at the average term requires the State to have a strategy of development for the new market, investing in infrastructure and studying tax incentive plans. The Institute of Technological Researches (IPT) is making a survey on the legal marks and the areas of the pre-salt, analyzing every bill surrounding the matter of royalties. The final document should be presented in the end of May and that will help Governor José Serra to take a position. The government of São Paulo believes the issue will be on a tight schedule until 2010, and because of that he decided to focus his immediate efforts in the preparation of an environment favorable to the setting up of an oil industry center on the coast of São Paulo. Nossa Caixa Desenvolvimento, a state development agency that will be launched in April with an authorized capital of R$ 1 billion (US$ 478 million) should be one of the arms for the promotion of the industry. The purpose is to attract the production of materials that rely on importation. According to study of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), which diagnosed 18 subsectors of the oil industry, four of them do not have national manufacturer and eight are considered to be of low competitiveness. "In other words, two thirds of such market is out of the national supply process. That is an opportunity of development in São Paulo", says Santos. Other agents of incentive will be the universities of the São Paulo system - USP, Unicamp and Unesp -, the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp) and the Paula Souza Center, which shall operate on the research and in the formation of workforce. "The focus will be to qualify people with higher level of education, besides providing educational support to the Promimp", he says, mentioning the Petrobrás program. According to the coordinator of Cespeg, between the coast of Santos and the coast of Ubatuba there are ten areas with inclination to receive structures of support to oil platforms, four of which could be intended for the installation of shipyards, which require a greater space, with at least 300 thousand square meters of area. The government, however, does not want to reveal the sites due to the risk of real estate speculation. They are private areas and the State is studying the feasibility of implementation of investments to present to the interested entrepreneurs.