Joe Biden Impressed by Huge Petrobas R&D Center

Petrobras CEO welcomed U.S. Vice-President and diplomats to the company's Research Center (Cenpes) in Rio de Janeiro.

The company's CEO, Maria das Graças Silva Foster, welcomed the U.S. vice-president, Joe Biden, along with the US ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon, and the US consul general in Rio de Janeiro, John Creamer. The group held a 30-minute closed meeting, which was also attended by Cenpes executive manager Marcos Assayag, advisor to the CEO André Garcez Ghirardi and Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry (Itamaraty) representative William Santos.

Following the meeting, the group toured the verification and WAG (Water Alternating Gas) injection laboratories. At the verification lab they were presented with samples of sediments collected during exploratory drilling in Brazil's offshore basins.

The laboratory uses these samples to analyze and measure the porosity, permeability and fluid saturation level of the sediment. The WAG injection laboratory focuses mainly on natural gas or carbon dioxide (CO2) injection as a means of augmenting oil field production, while avoiding emission of these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Petrobas describe the U.S. vice-president as being visibly impressed by the installations at Cenpes and its research projects, and he directed his questions to the managers responsible for the labs: José Roberto Fagundes Netto and Rafael Vieira (WAG) and Edson Jose Milani (verification).

Established in 1963, the Leopoldo Américo Miguez de Mello Research and Development Center (Cenpes) is one of the largest R&D centers in the world for applied research for the energy sector. Situated on the Ilha do Fundão, in Rio de Janeiro, it occupies an area of more than 300,000 m2 and is equipped with various laboratories working hard to meet the technological needs of Petrobras. Every year, the company invests $1.1 billion in research and development.