26 Aug /12

The Rainforest Revolution: Brazil to become one of the world’s largest oil producers thanks to new technologies

oil gas industry translations brazilUntil recently, the predominant assumption among economists and energy experts was that oil was running out – very soon. In a 2005 article entitled “The end of oil is closer than you think,” The Guardian announced that global oil reserves will possibly be exhausted as early as 2045.(i)

Recently, however, the pessimistic scenarios of the past decades have made way for a more optimistic outlook. Thanks, in part, to technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, oil production and supply capacities are growing worldwide at a level that might outpace consumption for the foreseeable future. In fact, on June 4, Bloomberg Businessweek announced, that for the first time in six years, crude oil production in the second quarter of the year had outpaced global demand.(ii)

Much of the new oil is coming from unconventional petroleum deposits such as the vast oil sand fields in Canada’s Athabasca basin and pre-salt offshore fields as can be found off the Brazilian coast. These fairly recent deposit discoveries significantly raised the amount of global oil reserves while advancements in extraction technology allow companies to extract oil in depositories that were formerly inaccessible. New fields located off Brazil’s southeast Atlantic coast deep beneath the ocean floor and protected by rugged salt-beds hold reserves that could surpass 100 billion barrels of high-quality recoverable crude.

But the result of the recent discoveries of new oil fields is not only a substantial extension for oil hungry economies to produce an energy agenda for the post-petroleum age, but has also led to drastic changes in the world economy. Not unlike Kazakhstan, which continues to profit immensely from the extraction of its vast energy resources, Brazil has become the new wonder child of South American economies and will likely turn Brazil into one of the largest oil producers in the world.

Expected to be fueled by its immense offshore deposits of heavy grade crude, Brazil is expected to become the largest producer of crude oil in Latin America before 2015 and emerge as the single-largest oil supplier outside the tightly-knit OPEC club.

While for many Brazil’s new found role as oil giant might come as a surprise, its emerging role as a global energy provider is, in fact, the result of an economic strategy that was set in motion more than 15 years ago and began with the privatization of the oil and gas sector and aided by the establishment of a stable political government. Simultaneously, Brazil bated foreign investors with low taxes and other incentives thereby ensuring a quick and a steady flow of foreign capital that would ensure the development of the nation’s oil fields. Today, lucrative Brazilian offshore operations attract all the global energy giants, including Shell, Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Repsol, BP, Anadarko, El Paso, Galp Energia, BG Group, Statoil, and Sinopek. But Brazil’s energy policy is not limited to catering to established energy companies; Brazil is simultaneously expanding its economic cooperation with emerging powers such as India and China thereby safeguarding its operations from multi-lateral dependency. Accordingly, Indian and Chinese nationalized oil companies already have major stakes in the country’s oil and gas markets and are expected to continue their investments in the future

The international climate and the rapid growth of the oil sector in Brazil have, in turn, brought a significant demand for industry-specific language services to the country. However, translation services for complex industries such as the energy sector are one of the most difficult and complex as they call for industry specific translators with excellent training and command of extremely specialized vocabulary.

Translations for the oil industry furthermore encompass a multitude of processes and their documentation. Just some of the documents one many encounter in a typical oil and gas translation assignment include: upstream documents (used in surveying, exploration, and production), downstream documents (refining and marketing), material data safety sheets, oil and gas legislation and country specific laws, transportation documents, pipelines construction blueprints, AutoCAD drawings, environmental and social impact assessments, operation and maintenance manuals, tender documents, financial reports, websites and software updates, marketing materials and PR brochures.

As an FPAL registered translation company, EVS Translations is a specialist for all oil and gas translations. Its particular focus is the translation of documents related to the exploration, extraction, refining, and delivery of petroleum and gas products. With more than twenty years of experience and over 100 in-house employees, you can leverage its multi-national presence and in-house teams of industry specific translators in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia through one contact. Excellent project management and processes mean that your projects can be completed in a cost-optimized fashion. All language requirements can be covered – from a one page initial survey report to a one million words pipeline construction blueprint.

Interested to learn more? Look more at our website or come and meet us in person at this year’s Gastech (October 8-11, 2012) and Petex (November 20-22, 2012) exhibitions in London.

EVS Translations would be pleased to meet with you and could set up an appointment at the exhibitions or discuss how we can help you achieve your translation needs by phone or email.

i The end of oil is closer than you think, The Guardian, 21 April 2005

ii Falling Oil Prices Are No Mystery, Bloomberg Businessweek, June 04, 2012