In recent years, findings from Petrobras – Brazil’s state-owned oil company - and other companies in the Pre-salt layer located in the Brazilian continental shelf triggered massive inward investments into Brazil’s oil & gas sector. Pre-salt reserves can produce over 50 billion barrels of oil, a volume four times greater than the current national reserves, roughly 14 billion barrels.

Moreover, with the economic decline of Venezuela, Brazil became the largest oil producer in Latin America with 2.6 million barrels, against Mexico's 2.45 million and Venezuela's 2.41 million.

The aggressive environment for pre-salt extraction, aligned with the current financial crisis in Petrobras has been leading the market to new solutions to add performance and economic gains to oil extraction, especially in sensitive points such as sealing process.

In this context, a new polymer product has emerged as the best alternative for the sector. Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) presents high levels of mechanic, thermal and chemical resistance, three cornerstones for oil & gas supply chain.

Even under high temperatures, PEEK maintains an elevated chemical resistance due to its molecular structure. Such features permits deformation risk to be significantly smaller than other polymers: 2,000 hours after being exposed to 260ºC, PEEK polymer retain its properties.

The necessity of PEEK in the Brazilian oil & gas industry is proven by the country’s imports. In the last 5 years, Brazilian imports of PEEK increased 74.0%, jumping from 5,413 tons in 2012 to 9,417 tons in 2016, amounting to US$ 22.51 million in FOB value.

Forecasts also indicates that imports of HS 39072090 – other polyethers – will keep growing throughout 2017. In the first quarter of the year, imports grew 7.4% as compared to the same quarter of 2016.

Currently, the major supplier of PEEK for the Brazilian market is the United States, with roughly 45% of the country’s imports, followed by China, Korea and Germany.

Since 2015, Dubai Exports representative office in São Paulo has been in charge of connecting and facilitating UAE exporters’ access to the Brazilian market in several sectors, including Plastics.  

 

Source: Master Polymers