Brazil turning into R&D center for oil -President

Research and development is playing a key role in Brazil's exploitation of potentially massive oil reserves found recently off the country's coast, President Dilma Rousseff said in a weekly question-and-answer column published Tuesday.

Research projects involving partnerships between Brazilian universities and oil field supply and service companies are under way, while most of the biggest names in the international oil and natural gas industry are opening research centers in Brazil, Rousseff said. In addition, federal oil company Petrobras has doubled the size of its Cenpes research center, turning it into the Southern Hemisphere's largest applied research center, she said.
   
"All of these initiatives are transforming Brazil into one of the most important technology development centers in this area," Rousseff said. Rousseff served as chairman of Petrobras before resigning to run for president in 2010.
   
Between 2006 and 2011, Petrobras invested $5.5 billion in research and development, she said. About 70% of those investments were focused on exploration and production with an emphasis on pre-salt technologies. The pre-salt reserves sit more than 4 miles under sea, rocks, sand and a shifting layer of salt, making for one of the most-challenging environments to explore for oil in the world. Government officials have estimated the region could hold 50 billion barrels of crude.
   
"The results have been very positive in various aspects, with a highlight on the large reduction in time and cost to drill wells," Rousseff noted.