Special Report of Valor Economico (Real Time)
SPECIAL: Milton Franke, HRT, says the company is today 'pacified'
Claudia Schüffner
From Rio
A year and three months after the departure of the founder Márcio Mello presidency of HRT, the company wants to show that it is leaner and, say, humble under the direction of Milton Franke. The grandiose plans to find very light oil in the Amazon and equal volumes of the pre-salt in Namibia led to the intention of using the cash of R $ 365 million to buy mature assets already in production. "Our strategy, when we had to rethink HRT, was to be a more balanced company with exploration and production," explains Franke. "HRT today is a buyer of assets of production while seeking partners in Africa".
For acquisitions in Brazil, the target fields are on land or at sea, preferably in the Campos Basin (RJ), to make operational synergies. Despite the coveted license operator A in Brazil, which enables to operate in deep waters, HRT does not care to be the new area operator. For anyone not understanding the change in direction, Franke makes a point of stressing that HRT "has appetite but not as strong" as before.
While not go shopping, HRT has plans to extend the life of your single field into production, which is already mature and whose reserves must be exhausted in two years. Other reservoirs were identified in the concession area and the plan now is to drill new production wells. To reduce spending, the initial idea is to access a well drilled five years ago. Estimated that HRT may lower spending on drilling for $ 25 million, with an estimated cost of $ 5 million for each intervention in the wells, which increase the yield. Drilling a well can cost in the region of $ 60 million to $ 100 million.
"This program already exists and is a success. Polvo [the Polvo field in theCampos Basin] have extended life, since other reserves have been identified. This was the way [to increase the productive life of the field] adopted in the North Sea and certainly serves to Brazil, "he says.
Eduardo Jacome, director of management and investor relations HRT, do the math and comes to a gross revenue of R $ 2.5 billion when he mentions the opportunities that HRT has to grow to achieve triple current production to the track 30 barrels. That will only come, obviously, with the acquisition of assets that enable this level of production.
HRT operates the Polvo field seven months ago and, thanks to him, produced 10,093 barrels of oil per day in June, which guaranteed a net income of R $ 138 million in the second quarter. The company made??a profit of £ 11 million in the interval when the same quarter last year posted a loss of £ 645.2 million. This removed some of the pressure of being an exploitative company much risk, high costs and no production.
The company is awaiting approval from the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) to complete the acquisition of 40% of Maersk in Polvo field, which will make the owner of 100%. The purchase price has not been disclosed, but will be known when the deal is completed, according to Chief Financial Officer Ricardo Dourado Bottas. For comparison, 60% of bought cost BP $ 135 million in December last year.
With an almost zen style compared to the exuberance of his predecessor, Franke explains the projects that, in his words, are making the HRT a company more "hands on" lean and "pacified", since he assumed the presidency on 13 May 2013 Since then, the shares were up 71%.
One of economies Franke mention is the removal of the car and driver for the company's president. The luxurious floor in a building now occupied high standard of beachfront on Atlantic Avenue in Copacabana, will be exchanged for a new office in Botafogo, also in the South Zone of Rio, but that can be considered a more modest neighborhood compared with the current site. Meetings there came to be in Portuguese, another change.
The number of employees, which was600 in 2011, now stands at 150 The President said that will be even less, somewhere between 40-60, as part of moves to the payroll of the Russian Rosneft, which took over operation of areas in the Solimões Basin, the Amazon after buying 6% that gave him control, going on to have 51% of HRT O & G Exploration and Production of Oil. The idea is to keep enough to continue operating Polvo field and keep the blocks in Namibia, the latter in charge of the Houston-based staff. For the campaign in Africa, after drilling three wells, only one of which had traces of oil, the company continues to seek partners to share investments and keep ra concession.
Also for sale, Ipex today has only 8 of the 28 employees before. This company has a laboratory for chemical analysis and was created by Marcio Mello to provide geological, geophysical and geochemical services. The Ipex had several oil companies as clients, but they were when it was incorporated by HRT, which was a competitor.
Franke lists the critical moments experienced last year to say that understands the turmoil, but now the time is another. Remember that there were conflicts on the board, supervisory board, and between shareholders and administrators, not to mention dissatisfied with the performance of the company investors who came to have all councilors resigning after a tense meeting on the eve of last Christmas. Were also resolved all pending litigation involving the former directors and officers.
The calmer weather was intended to Nelson Tanure, the controversial businessman who became the largest individual shareholder company, with 19.25% of the capital, after the American Discovery Fund, one of the original shareholders sold all shares that had the company, performing a millionaire injury. Tanure invited to the council's former director-general of the ANP, Haroldo Lima, and former Senator PMDB-MG and former communications minister under Lula, Helio Costa, the directors of the highest profile board of HRT.
