Brazil’s Vale Doce, the world's second-largest miner, expects to overcome obstacles that prompted management to re-assess a 3 billion dollars potash project in the Argentine province of Mendoza, the company's head of fertilizers, Roger Downey, said.

Vale Doce said in April it would re-evaluate the 5.9 billion Reais project due to political and cost overrun risks.
The concession for the Rio Colorado potash project was suspended in the middle of 2011 when the provincial government of Mendoza accused Vale of failing to comply with local labour laws.
Earlier in April, Argentina worried investors when it initiated plans to seize control of Spanish-controlled energy company YPF to boost flagging oil and gas production.
“We remain in contact with the Argentine government, which is aware of the obstacles concerning the project” said Downey however “we're confident we'll overcome the difficulties with it”.
This week, the Brazilian and Argentine governments will meet to address trade issues, such as the adoption of barriers by Argentina that have slowed Brazilian exports to its neighbour.

Petrobras will invest U.S. $ 236.5 billion by 2016

Petrobras announced to the market, on Thursday (14), the approval of your business plan scheduled for the period 2012-2016. The investment will be U.S. $ 236.5 billion in the period, the value 5.25% higher than the $ 224.7 billion under the previous plan (2011-2015).

The state's investment plan provides $ 141.8 billion in exploration and production of oil and natural gas. The average annual investment is $ 47.3 billion.

But the refining segment, which has caused damages to the company, will have $ 65.5 billion, 27.7% of the total. According to the document, Petrobras must submit cash flow between $ 38 billion and $ 44 billion by 2016.

The production goal for 2016 is 3.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe / day) in the country. To achieve the goal, the company says should create three executive managers (not yet defined).

Petrobras considers Brent crude oil prices between 90 and 100 dollars a barrel in your investment plan. The previous plan considered the price of crude between $ 80 and 95.

The new investment plan was approved on the night of Wednesday (13) by the state board of directors, chaired by Finance Minister Guido Mantega.

CRCC - Learn how to become a Petrobras supplier

Registration to become a supplier for Petrobras  - CRCC Process


Introduction


Petrobras has an online system for Goods and Services Suppliers Registration, through which prospective and already registered companies provide the necessary information and documents. This database contains important information concerning legal, economical, technical, managerial and HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) situation of Brazilian and foreign companies that intend to participate in biddings for supply of goods and provision of services for Petrobras.

Registration exposes company’s profile to every Petrobras unit in Brazil for sourcing of suppliers, and besides it is a pre-qualification for biddings.

Company’s registration is valid for one year, being annually renewed with the update of legal and economical data.

Categories of Suppliers

Goods Suppliers: there are four categories in which suppliers are identified:
• • Trader Manufacturer: it is the supplier that produces equipments, materials or inputs and trades them directly with Petrobras;
• • Non-Trader Manufacturer: it is the supplier that produces equipments, materials or inputs and does not trade them directly with Petrobras. In this case, the trade will be carried out by a distributor.
• • Distributor: it is the supplier of materials appointed by a manufacturer that does not trade its products directly.
• • Reseller: it is the supplier that trades materials produced by third parties (trader manufacturer), duly accredited by the latter.


Note: distributors and resellers can only trade products of manufacturers previously qualified in Petrobras registration.

Service Providers: companies that render services and/or execute works in general.

Note: to provide services in Brazil, foreign companies must be formally authorized by the brazilian government or have a brazilian daughter company registered and evaluated in Petrobras Goods and Services Suppliers Registration.
Participation in Bidding Processes

Foreign suppliers are only invited for international scope biddings (that is, in foreign currencies) conducted by Petrobras units located in Brazil. For bidding processes of Petrobras units abroad, the supplier must contact the intended unit directly. To participate in biddings in Brazil (in national currency – Real), foreign goods suppliers must appoint a distributor or reseller in Brazil.


Inclusion in this database does not guarantee a bid opportunity.


Goods and Services subject to registration

Petrobras Goods and Services Suppliers comprises suppliers of several types of materials and equipments (pumps, compressors, heat exchangers, valves, fittings, process reactors, process towers, boilers, electric panels, among others) and services (design, maintenance, construction, drilling, among others).

Documents required for registration

The supplier may be evaluated in up to five criteria, according to its category. Get to know these criteria and the relevant documents.
Category of Supplier Evaluation Criteria
Technical Economical Legal HSE Managerial
Trader Manufacturer YES YES YES YES YES
Non-Trader Manufacturer YES - - YES YES
Distributor - YES YES YES -
Reseller - YES YES YES -
Service Provider YES YES YES YES YES

Technical Criterion: it aims to evaluate the technical capacity of the company considering the necessary resources for the appropriate performance of the goods to be supplied and/or services to be rendered. The goods that the company proposes to supply are assessed separately and each one has specific requirements for qualification. Check these requirements here.

Economical Criterion: it demands evidences of the economic stability, in order to assure that the company can continue and conclude the supplies of goods and/or provision of services.

The documents required for the evaluation of this criterion are the Balance Sheet and Financial Statements related to the end of the last two fiscal years of the company.

Legal Criterion: it has the purpose of verifying if the company is regularly registered in its country of origin and is not in a bankruptcy situation. Moreover, it requires the appointment of a legal representative in Brazil with expressed powers to receive summons and respond administratively and judicially. The legal representative may be a natural person or a legal entity established in Brazil.

The documents required for the assessment of this criterion are:

• • Commitment Letter: it aims to formally manifest the interest of the company in integrating Goods and Services Suppliers Registration. Refer to Annex IX
• • Evidence of being legally incorporated in its country of origin, issued by a government body. The latest amendment (if any) to the company bylaws with respective registration is required.
• • Letter appointing its legal representative in Brazil expressly empowered to receive summons and respond administratively and judicially. Refer to Annex VI.
• • Evidence that the company is not in a situation of bankruptcy or pre-bankruptcy nor is a debtor of a state or private organization that may be detrimental to the performance of the contracts. It may be a letter from the CEO or financial director of the company or a legal opinion. Refer to Annex VII.
• • In case of resellers or distributors, accreditation letter(s) issued by the manufacturers of each material, informing the accredited product(s). Refer to Annex II-A or Annex II-B respectively. Additionally, Commitment of Inspection Guarantee, refer to Annex III.


HSE Criterion (Health, Safety and Environment): it has the purpose of verifying if the company has an occupational health, safety and environment management system, implemented and maintained, using the requirements of Standards ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 as parameters.
In this criterion, the supplier must fill in the questionnaire and attach the documents that evidence the information provided.


For goods suppliers, this criterion is only classificatory.


Managerial Criterion: it has the purpose of knowing the managerial conduct of the companies, evaluating the commitment with quality and continuous improvement, using the requirements of Standard ISO 9001 as parameters.
Document to be presented: valid ISO 9001:2000 or ISO 9001:2008 certificate.
How to register


The process of qualification and registration of suppliers for Petrobras in Brazil is accomplished by means of the Goods and Services Suppliers Registration website.
Considering that there is a mandatory requirement for foreign companies to have a legal representative in Brazil and that it’s also desirable that the supplier has a locaL COMMERCIAL REPRESENTATIVE, PETROBRAS RECOMMENDS that these companies use the services of LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES TO PROCESS APPLICATIONS and REMIT documents in the Goods and Services Suppliers Registration website.

Registering Processes

These are the processes of registration and maintenance of company's information in Petrobras Goods and Services Suppliers Registration.
Registration: it is for suppliers that intend to be registered in Petrobras for the first time. In this process, the supplier must fill in questionnaires and attach documents according to its category and the goods intended to be supplied.

Renewal: the company already approved in Petrobras Goods and Services Suppliers Registration must initiate the proceedings for registration renewal at least 60 days before its expiration, with the presentation of the relevant documents updated, in order to maintain its registration active. This process is meant only for those suppliers who are evaluated in economical and legal criteria. The technical and HSE criteria are not evaluated annually.

Extension of range of supply: it is for those suppliers already evaluated and qualified by Petrobras that wish to include new goods in their range of supply. In this process, the technical criterion questionnaire must be filled in and relevant documents concerning the goods to be included must be attached.
Reclassification: the supplier may request the reopening of the questionnaires to insert additional information in order to obtain a reconsideration of rate.

Proceedings for Supplier Evaluation

Documental Evaluation: it’s the assessment of information and documents provided by the company by a team of Petrobras evaluators, experts in the areas corresponding to the evaluation criteria (Technical, Economical, Legal, HSE and Managerial).

Presence Evaluation: due to the peculiarity of the material and the supplier market, a technical visit to the headquarters of the company may be requested by a Petrobras or designated team for the evaluation of Technical, HSE and Managerial criteria.

Note: according to the results of the evaluations, Petrobras may restrict the grant of financial advances, the validity of the registration, as well as limit the range of supply.

OUR Program of SERVICES for the CRCC Petrobras covers all stages (Pre Registration and Cadastre) and criteria (Technical, Legal, Economic, and Managerial SMS) required to meet the corporate register of suppliers of Petrobras, ensuring the necessary preparation of your company to obtain the CRCC Petrobras quickly and efficiently, reducing costs and project time.

The enrollment procedure also involves some key steps, such as the PETROBRAS ON-SITE INSPECTION at Company’s sites/facilities.

The average time may vary depending on the consistency of existing documentation in the company. Companies certified under ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 are prepared to achieve better results faster.

CONTACT US HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CRCC SERVICES

Statoil Buys FPSO Unit In Brazil From Maersk

Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil ASA (STO) Tuesday said it has signed a deal to buy a floating production, storage and offloading unit from Maersk (MAERSK-B.KO) for an undisclosed figure. The unit, which Statoil will buy together with its partner Sinochem, has been used at the Statoil-operated Peregrino field offshore Brazil since production start-up in 2011. Norwegian company BW Offshore Ltd. (BWO.OS) will take over the operations on the floating production, storage and offloading, or FPSO, unit from Maersk and the transition is expected to take at least around six months. The Peregrino FPSO has a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels of oil, and produced well over 15 million barrels during its first year of operation, said Statoil. Statoil owns seven licenses in Brazil. "Brazil plays an important part in Statoil's international growth strategy specialising in deep water and heavy oil. We've been present in Brazil since 2001 and this was the right time for us to invest further," said Thore E Kristiansen, head of development and production international, South America and sub-Saharan Africa in Statoil.

For as long as most of us can remember the center of gravity in the oil industry has been the Middle East. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has long been the key producer globally with its ability to quickly ratchet its oil production up or down. In the same way, however, that the world is becoming more "multipolar" politically, we are also seeing emerging signs of multipolarity in oil production as well. One country that has been at the forefront of this trend has been Brazil. As the graph below shows, Brazilian oil production has been trending upwards, and the latest data is that as of the end of 2011 Brazil was producing approximately 2.2 million oil barrels per day (bpd). Brazilian oil production is set to more then double in the next eight years to approximately 5 million bpd, which would make it the fourth leading oil producer in the world after Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States. The major reason for Brazil's potential growth lies in its offshore oil fields. Brazil had two major oil finds in the waters off its coast during the period between 2007 and 2009, the Libra and the even larger Tupi. What is both fascinating and challenging about Brazil's oil bounty is its location 5 - 7 kms underneath the surface of the ocean in the so-called pre-salt layers. The extraction of pre-salt oil requires an offshore rig with a special drill bit able to bore through several thousand feet of salt to reach the treasure below. This type of offshore drilling requires a special capability, and it is for this reason that I see one interesting way to play Brazil's offshore oil boom to be buying makers of the "picks and shovels", i.e. the drilling rigs manufacturers themselves. The world's largest rig manufacturer is National Oilwell Varco (NOV), which benefits from economies of scale due to its size and has recently won several tenders for Brazil. Over the past five years, both sales and earnings at Petrobras have grown approximately 26% per cent annually, and given Brazil's huge production upside - of which Petrobras will be the natural beneficiary.