Brazil Petrobras Awaits Report On US Gulf Rig Accident

By Jeff Fick Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)--Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, trusts its in-house safety measures and will wait for a conclusive report on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico rig accident before making any possible changes, the company's materials and technology manager said Thursday. "After the causes of the accident are released, we're going to analyze the report and evaluate whether it will be necessary to review any procedures," Petrobras's Carlos Cunha Dias told Dow Jones Newswires in an email. Global energy companies and oil-producing countries around the world are looking more closely at the technical challenges posed by deep-water drilling after a well blowout caused an explosion and fire that sank Transocean Ltd.'s (RIG) Deepwater Horizon rig at BP PLC's (BP, BP.LN) Macondo field. "We can't say much about the accident itself because we don't yet have all of the information about its causes," Dias said. Petrobras is recognized as one of the world's top companies in deep-water oil production, with more than 85% of Brazilian crude oil coming from fields in the offshore Campos Basin. The company has set several deep-water drilling records and has focused lately on the ultra-deep-water presalt fields. The presalt oil frontier is somewhat similar to the ultra-deep-water Lower Tertiary region in the Gulf of Mexico. The presalt finds were made under a thick layer of salt in the Santos Basin off the coast of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states. The oil lies under more than 2,000 meters of water and a further 5,000 meters under sand, rock and a shifting layer of salt. The key to safety when drilling at such depths is proper technology, Dias said. "We guarantee that all Petrobras's operations, whether on land or at sea, are done in an absolutely safe way, and that Petrobras specifies materials and equipment for rigorous production," Dias said. -By Jeff Fick, Dow Jones Newswires; 55-21-2586-6085; jeff.fick@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 29, 2010 15:51 ET (19:51 GMT)