Firms Line Up to Get in on Brazil Oil ‘Gold Rush’

The discovery of huge offshore oil reserves has made Brazil one of the world’s hottest energy markets, with firms that make everything from planning software for wells to floating “hotels” for platform workers clamoring for a piece of the action.

More than 35,000 people are attending this week’s Rio Oil and Gas conference, the first since state firm Petrobras shocked the oil world last November by announcing the world’s second-biggest oil find in 20 years.
As financial markets crashed around the world, executives here were busily making deals and bubbling with enthusiasm at the prospect of working with Petrobras to exploit the oil trapped below a thick salt layer underneath the ocean floor — something that could cost up to US$600 billion.

“Being with Petrobras is a bit like being in the first gold rush in the US,” said Mark Grills, a software engineer for British firm QuickWells, whose product helps engineers plan the complex internal make-up of wells.

“It’s like you’re discovering oil all over again.”

Planet Ark