Since 2003 a new approach to conduct the environmental permitting process for oil & gas activities offshore Brazil has been negotiated with the Brazilian environmental federal authority (IBAMA). The new model is based on the concept of geographical areas, where an operator can develop a set of drilling or production projects considering just one administrative process, instead of carrying out individual ones which usually led to more prolonged permits. This model has been successfully applied by Petrobras in the drilling permits (LO) for the Geographical Areas of Campos and Espírito Santo, which respond for almost 80% of the total drilling activity carried out by the company in Brazilian waters, nowadays. The model was also applied to license a production area in the northern part of Campos Basin called Parque das Baleias. In this area, a Preliminary Permit (LP) was granted and for each new project (platform, pipeline) there are just a few steps to follow to get the Installation (LI) and Operation Permit (LO). Before using this innovative model, for each individual permitting process there were a need to prepare a different Environmental Impact Assessment Study (EIA) that, considering the characteristics of the locations, usually contained the same environmental diagnosis and the same drilling rigs and fluids descriptions. Not only repeated work was been done by operators, but also the Environmental Authority had the same effort in analyze all the documents. As a consequence, the use of the new model reduced the number of processes and allowed the establishment of unified mitigating and compensating environmental projects (environmental education, environmental monitoring and social communication programs). Finally, the unification of environmental projects, contracts and reports allows a better HSE planning and management of the activities by the operators. It is important to stand out that such environmental projects are more comprehensive and complex. On the other hand, allows an integrated vision aggregating value to the actions derived form the environmental permitting processes.

As new oil fields are discovered downslope on the largest Brazilian oil region, Campos Basin, situated on the shelf break and continental slope of eastern South America, new oceanographic challenges are continuously encountered by oceanographers and engineers involved in the design, installation and production of oil field ranging from water depths between 500 to 2000 m. The surface flow in the region is dominated by the Brazil Current, the counterpart of the Gulf Stream as the western boundary current of the South Atlantic gyre. The deep water flow is very complex with different layers of counter currents associated with the rich structure of water masses on this region. This paper discusses the attempts made by PETROBRAS to study the complex flow in the region and produce oil under the harsh environment of deep continental slope regions. Results of oceanographic measurements are presented to build a reliable metocean design basis for this region of the South Atlantic Ocean where there is a lack of long term data measurements. Introduction PETROBRAS has been involved in the exploitation of oilfrom continental shelves since the late 1960's. Initially, it was the production of oil fields in the northeast Brazilian shelf in the Sergipe State (about 12° S) when Guaricema oil field started its production in 1969. Later on, the production was increased with exploitation of the continental shelf at Rio Grande do Norte State (5° S) in 1976 (Fig. 1). The oil fields were located in the inner shelf on water depths ranging from 10 to 30 m. The production systems were based on jacket type platforms designed to withstand the local mild environmental condition obtained from ship weather reports and global databases. The economic exploration of oil and gas in Campos Basin, located offshore the Rio de Janeiro State (about 22° S) started in the mid 1970's with the discovery of the Garoupa field. During the first phase, only oil fields situated in the outer continental shelf on water depths ranging from 90 to 170 m were exploited. Due to the lack of local metocean measurements, jacket platforms were first designed based upon environmental conditions slightly modified from conditions of northern hemisphere production sites, such as Gulf of Mexico. Additional reports from environmental consultant companies included wave and wind information from South Atlantic ship weather reports and Navy databases to improve design conditions. The main environmental forces on the southeast Brazilian continental shelf are due to the tidal and wind driven current components, and to the local wave and wind fields. Simple analytical models were used to estimate current profiles and extreme environmental conditions. The oceanographic turn point for the company occurred in the middle 1980's when the company started to operate floating production systems (FPS) on the upper continental slope (Ref. 1). It was clear that the current measurements from the rigs were completely different from the design current profiles previously used in the continental shelf. As observed in Figure 2, the jackets on the continental shelf were situated entirely on the coastal water mass, where the physical properties are homogeneous along any depth profile. On the other hand, the floating production systems on the continental slope were situated on a highly stratified water column with different water masses.

Environmental monitoring projects are executed as part of the requirements for maintaining environmental permits according to Brazilian regulation. They are designed to generate data to test the hypotheses assumed in the environmental impact assessment studies and to provide a feedback on the environmental quality of the area itself. According to Brazilian regulation, a new monitoring project must be proposed for each new drilling or production project. As a consequence, in 2009 Petrobras had a total of 35 different monitoring projects proposed or in execution in offshore Campos Basin. The logistic required to implement such projects involve many operational demands, such as availability of laboratories, research vessels adequately equipped and the control of elaboration and turning of so many data reports. In addition, as the individual projects are designed by different groups, with different objectives and timing, it is quite a challenge to get a comprehensive assessment of the environmental quality of Campos Basin as a whole. In order to address these problems, a new proposal is currently being discussed with the Brazilian