ExxonMobil under new leadership in Brazil

Juan Lessmann is the new president of ExxonMobil in Brazil, the oil major stated on Wednesday. He replaces Carla Lacerda, who is retiring after 35 years serving the company. 

Lessman has worked for Exxon for over 22 years, having occupied important exploration and production (E&P) positions around the world for the firm. More recently, he was project executive for the Bacalhau field, operated by Equinor.   

ExxonMobil has been operating in Brazil since 1912 and currently has 1,600 employees in the country working in the chemicals and E&P areas, in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, respectively, as well as a global business center in Paraná. 

In the last three years, the oil company invested US$4bn to acquire 28 offshore exploration blocks in the country, 17 of which as operator. 

Nine of them are located in the Sergipe-Alagoas basin and are operated in partnership with Enauta and Murphy Oil. 

In recent years, Petrobras made important deep and ultra-deep water hydrocarbon discoveries in the basin, including the giant Poço Verde natural gas prospect. 

The region could become a “gas cluster” for Exxonmobil, since the company is already involved in Celse’s Porto de Sergipe thermoelectric power project. Through the Ocean LNG joint venture with Qatar Petroleum, the US company supplies LNG for the plant. 

Exxonmobil has another 13 assets in the Campos basin, being the operator of five blocks: C-M-37, C-M-67, C-M-479, C-M-753 and C-M-789), the latter two with Petrobras and Qatar Petroleum, respectively. 

In the Santos basin, Exxon operates the S-M-536, S-M-647 and Titã blocks in consortium with Qatar Petroleum, and is a partner at Uirapuru, operated by Petrobras, and Carcará (Bacalhau) and BM-S-8, led by Equinor. 

At the end of November, Exxon listed Brazil among its near-term investment priorities, together with Guyana and the Permian basin in the US. 

Since 2018, Exxon has submitted license requests to Brazilian environmental agency Ibama to drill in blocks C-M-37, C-M-067, BM-C-753, BMC-789, BM-S-536, BM-S-647, Titã and the nine Sergipe-Alagoas assets (SEAL-M-351, SEAL-M-428, SEAL-M-430, SEAL-M-501, SEAL-M-503, SEAL-M-505, SEAL-M-573, SEAL-M-575 and SEAL-M-637. 

In November, Enauta CFO, Paula Costa Côrte-Real, told an investors webcast that a wildcat well in Sergipe-Alagoas would be drilled in the second half of 2021.