Original View on Brazilian Local Content Regulatory Enviroment

Abstract

Since Law No. 9.478/97 was enacted, the ANP (National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels) has been looking forward to enhance local content for the areas offered in its rounds.After several tender processes, local content requirements had become decisive for the concession contract winners. Consequently, all the concessionaire supply chain had to evidence the local content of its products and services in accordance to the existing rules. As result, the local content that could be achieved by each E&P (Exploration & Production) supplier becomes a great competitive differential in Brazilian oil market. In this context, foreign companies interested in taking advantage of the growing opportunities in the E&P segment in Brazil, started to look for alternatives and structures capable of adding local content to their products and services.The concession contracts for offshore blocks have the highest local content commitments during the development phase. This is because there are huge investments in goods and services acquirement, particularly in the acquisition of a production unit like FPSOs (Floating production, storage and offloading) which are particularly efficient due to its mobility in different areas.The construction and installation for a FPSO, for instance, generates significant demand for such goods and services that may impact the entire local supply chain. The lack of availability these acquisitions in the Brazilian market may adversely affect the attractiveness of projects. Thus, we highlight the importance of a more appropriate method that considers both the profit margin as local content committed by the concessionaires with ANP.Considering the relevance of the scenario presented above, this paper aims to suggest a method that supports the decision-making that complies with the required local content index and the operator preference. The original view on Brazilian regulatory environment, contributes to improve local content strategy in petroleum industry. The work is developed briefly presenting: method of decision support; oil industry in Brazil; regulatory market and local content policies.