Now our Country Manager Veronica Rezende Coelho in Brazil and the mother of a 14-year-old girl, feels we owe it to her daughter’s generation to become climate neutral.
Q: What has Equinor's presence meant for the country where you are the country manager?
A: Equinor has made a difference in the Brazilian energy industry in many ways. For several years, we were the largest operator in Brazil besides Petrobras. This was due to the Peregrino Operations. Peregrino is an oil field located offshore, east of Rio de Janeiro, with about 4 billion barrels of oil in place within the sanctioned area. The oil field was discovered in 2004 and is a great example of how we have been able to deploy our capability to develop an asset and generate value out of it. Even with a field like Peregrino, that was believed by many to not producible. A more recent field, Bacalhau, is an example where our technological competence is put to work by. Amongst other things, this will both be the biggest floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) in Brazilian waters and become the most CO2 efficient FSPO in the world!
Q: In what way does your job contribute to the energy transition?
A: By ensuring local implementation of the corporate strategy of always safe, high value and low carbon. In oil and gas projects we are minimizing our carbon footprint by for instance replacing diesel by gas for power generation on the PRG FPSO, applying combined cycle technology on Bacalhau, sharing experience on reservoir management and energy efficiency with Petrobras for implementation on the Roncador field. We are also maturing renewable projects, both by investing in the rather mature onshore renewables framework and value chain in Brazil, and by studying the frame conditions applicable to offshore wind projects, engaging with the relevant stakeholders, and getting ready to act when the right opportunity comes. We are also preparing to start investing in Nature based solutions.
Q: What are your thoughts about the ambition to become climate neutral by 2050?
A: I find it necessary and motivating! I’m the mother of a 14-year-old girl, and I feel that we owe it to her generation. The journey to be climate neutral by 2050 is not a given – we need to admit that we do not yet have all the answers but most importantly, we must commit to make the necessary investments and resource prioritization to find or develop them.
Q: Collaboration is crucial to achieving these ambitious climate goals. In what way is this important in your work?
A: In my position I witness every day the importance of collaboration, both within the company and when working with external actors and stakeholders. For Exploration and Production to succeed, we depend on the success of both PDP (delivery of the projects on time and on cost, with good production attainment) and MMP (safe and efficient offloading, transportation, and commercialization of our products) – just to name two. Externally we rely on solid, transparent, and effective collaboration with stakeholders in general to take the overall ambition from words to actions.
