Poor drilling results, fiscal terms discourage offshore investment

ONCE HAILED AS one of the world's brightest spots for energy exploration and production (E&P), the country's offshore has failed to live up to its promise, a panel of executives from international oil companies (IOCs) operating there told the recent Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. Unless things change, investors could lose interest. State-controlled Petrobras was enjoying a commercial success rate of 25% and had already discovered four oilfields with reserves exceeding 0.5bn barrels each when the government opened the region for foreign investment in 1997. The newly established regulatory body, the national petroleum agency (ANP), set fiscal terms and conditions that, at the t