The two books launched this Wednesday, October 23, are part of the Centre’s work to spread its knowledge in the areas of regulating the exploration of natural gas and of CCS
Around 30 people attended the release of the books “Regulating Natural Gas in Brazil” (A Regulação do Gás Natural no Brasil), organized by Professor Hirdan Katarina de Medeiros Costa, and “Legal Aspects of Carbon Capture and Storage in Brazil” (Aspectos Jurídicos da Captura e Armazenamento de Carbono no Brasil), organized by Professor Costa and Raíssa Mendes Musarra. The event took place on Wednesday, October 23, at the Livraria da Vila, in São Paulo. In attendance were ten of the 25 authors who were published in the two books. Also participating were Professor Luis Antônio Bittar Venturi, Coordinator of the RCGI’s Project 28; Zevi Kann, former Director of ARSESP (Sanitation and Energy Regulatory Agency of the State of São Paulo); and Almir Fernando Martins, former director of finance and investor relations of CESP (São Paulo Power Company).
“The works focus on the diffusion of knowledge regarding subjects that we feel are important to Brazil, today, which is a country that, besides petroleum, is on the way to becoming a large producer of natural gas, and it needs to establish means of dealing with the exploration, production, and especially the transport of this energy source. It also must deal with the consequences arising from the use of fossil fuels, such as is the case of carbon and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ms. Costa.
The transportation and processing of natural gas (NG) have been the objective of initiatives in various spheres of the Federal government: the return of the substitute Bill for the Gas Law (PL 6407/2013) to the agenda of the Mining and Energy Committee of the Federal House of Representatives and the recent Resolution 16 of the National Council on Energy Policy (CNPE), which established the New Natural Gas Market and suggested that Petrobras should divest itself of all of its assets in the NG transportation area that are no longer relevant.
The New Natural Gas Market and the transportation of NG are subjects discussed in more than one article of the book on regulating natural gas. “Generally speaking, all of the subjects in this collection are relevant to the natural gas industry. However, the transportation of natural gas plays a unique role at the heart of a complex contractual matrix, which has the objective of taking natural gas from its production or importation site to the consumer. Since it is typically a natural monopoly, the relations have an even more relevant function for this activity, in order to ensure that the service is efficiently provided, safe, and at the lowest possible cost,” states Ivan Lafayette Bandeira Londres, a lawyer who is an expert in this subject, and who is one of the authors and is involved with the area of commercial contracts, regulations, and projects in the oil and gas sector.
Fernanda Tomé, attorney and Master’s candidate at the Institute of Energy and the Environment of the University of São Paulo (IEE/USP), who also wrote articles in the book on natural gas, considers the work to be a guidebook for those who are interested in the sector. “The main regulatory discussions related to the sector are analyzed by researchers and market professionals, which ensures a variety of points of view.”
CCS – Indicated as a “bridge” in the energy transition process, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies still lack a specific legal framework in Brazil, although it is increasingly clear that the country has great opportunities for CCS operations in depleted offshore petroleum and natural gas fields, as well as in the biofuels industry, through a process called BECCS (Bioenergy with CCS).
Raíssa Musarra, co-organizer of the book on CCS, emphasizes that the challenge facing researchers who dealt with the subject is to make a way for society to direct the ecosystems and the production of goods and services in the best possible manner. “Within a national regulatory context, which is sparsely served with regard de greenhouse gas emissions, and backward in terms of climate and environmental policies, the book seeks to offer answers, in the legal sphere, on how to adapt CCS techniques to the already existing national legal order. We must remember that this writing is being released at a moment in which demands are arising for answers for resolving the problems related to the use of natural resources.”
Teamwork – Professor Costa stresses that the books are the result of the efforts a hard work of the entire team of researchers|. “I am grateful to the authors for their contributions and hope that we can continue with this spirit of disseminating and expanding knowledge,” she says.
For some of them, like engineer Clarissa Petrachini Gonçalves, who is also a Master’s candidate at the IEE/USP and who took part in the book on regulating natural gas, this was the first publication in book form. “This was a highly enriching experience; it is my first publication in a book, and I am grateful for the opportunity. It is incredible to do research and see the publication come out. This is a sign that there are people here who are working to see that this happens. And it’s very good to see the results. I hope to continue doing research and publishing in active groups like this one.”