Ueze Elias Zahran, CEO of Grupo Zahran/Copagaz (Brazil- Marcopolis)

You are a very successful entrepreneur; many people have talked about your life. What do you identify as major success factors in your life? What is your life creed? How did you manage to create the company from nothing? What is your advice for the future generation of entrepreneurs?

I am expanding the company all over the country. Brazil has 27 states and Copagaz is in 21. We have increased by 150,000 tonnes of gas - selling more every year. My company sells 550,000 tonnes a year, which represents half of Argentina.

My mother was crazy about the gas stove. We were living in South Mato Grosso (Mato Grosso do Sul); she came here (to Sao Paulo) once to see her relatives and saw them using a gas stove. Then, she went down to the city where I was living, Campo Grande, and asked me for a stove like that. So, I came here and bought one with four bottles because they had to send it by train and it took a lot of time to reach our city. She was so happy when she saw the blue fire below the pan of food; I saw a grown-up woman and mother happy with gas, which we didn’t have in our country.

So, I came to Sao Paulo to be a LPG reseller for a company called Supergasbras and I have been studying about gas since then. When I talked to the president of this company, I saw that I could be distributor too because I knew more than him about gas. I asked him what the weight of a bottle of gas was and he didn’t know, but I did. They were bottles of 13 kilograms and 5 kilograms. That day I told myself I was going to be a distributor too, I was not going to be only a concessionary. I worked a whole year to get an LPG company license - that was in 1955. Since then, I’ve been working in the field for 57 years.

At that time, here in the country we had 21 companies. Today, out of those 21 companies, there are only four left - 17 disappeared. My company is one of those four. I continue working to find a way to use gas safely. I used to go to Europe once a year and we would have what they call the World Forum of Gas. I used to go there and take ideas to use in my own business. The butane-propane gas is very dangerous, but they have laws that makes it safer. I worked for 23 years to put those laws in place here in Brazil and they started doing so last year; we start working and testing the gas bottles every ten years. Today I am working to make it safe, but I haven’t finished yet.

I would like to focus on a message about Mato Grosso. You started your business career in Mato Grosso. You’ve seen the evolution of the business over there. In your opinion, what is the future of Mato Grosso and can you speak a little bit about the business opportunities over there?

Mato Grosso is a big state – it spans about 1.5 million square kilometers. The rain happens when they say it is going to, and the land is very good and cheap. So, when the government divided the state into two states – Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso, all the European people from the south of Brazil – Santa Catarina, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul – went to Mato Grosso and they bought everything - all the land - and they started producing cotton, soy beans and a lot of grains. The state is rich and very good now; I don’t think it has anything else to offer – only the land. Although, besides agriculture, there is also industry since Mato Grosso is in the middle of the country – we don’t have sea, but we have a river that flows straight to Argentina and Uruguay, so we can export from there.

What about tourism and culture in Mato Grosso?

They are crazy about the Pantanal. They say that it is from Pantanal that the moon appeared. It is a wild country with native grass and full of cattle. I’ve only been there twice. When the rain comes the Pantanal is a sea; we can’t see any land, only water. It certainly is a place to visit from a tourist’s perspective.

What is your vision for Mato Grosso?

Now, my vision is for the whole of Brazil because I started working with my factory. I am expanding the company all over the country. Brazil has 27 states and Copagaz is in 21. I don’t want to be in the other six because I call them water states; the Amazon and Maranhão are just water - there are no people over there, no people that use gas at least. Here, in the country, we have increased by 150,000 tonnes of gas - selling more every year. Overall, the gas companies in Brazil are selling 7,500,000 tonnes a year. My company sells 550,000. That’s good enough for me, but I am hoping to make it bigger and different. 550,000 is half of Argentina – Argentina uses 1 million tonnes of gas a year. So, I’m looking after this gas business (Copagaz) and my television network, and I’m trying to improve both of these businesses. I’m not trying to make another kind of business, I have enough already.

What is your opinion of the gas distribution sector? There are only 8 companies controlling the market, whereas there are 50 such companies in Mexico. Is it good or bad? What is your assessment of the gas distribution sector in Brazil?

For over 50 years, I had news on my desk about bottled gas killing families. Inside Brazil, I introduced a law regarding bottled gas safety in 1996 – I had to do this step by myself. You cannot play with bottled gas; it is serious and when you work irresponsibly with it, somebody will pay for it. We used to have whole families killed by bottled gas, and my company was working for more than 23 years to stop it. Finally, the regulatory agency accepted my idea and they put the law into practice. Today, we still have 31 million out of 100 million bottles that haven’t been tested yet. We have to test them every 10 years.

One statistic says that Petrobras supplies 70% of the gas needs of Brazil. What are your projections for the price of gas in Brazil and is it going to be affordable for the people?

Petrobras sells 100% of the whole gas in Brazil. They say they’re going to raise the price. I don’t know yet whether they’ll do it or not because the government is very careful with the price of bottled gas. They showed the government that the price here is the lowest in the whole world. They showed that it costs R$ 0.20 per person per day (in a family of five people), because a bottle of gas costs R$ 43 and it lasts 43 days so that’s R$ 1 a day. In a family of five people, that’s R$ 0.20 per person. There’s no other place in the world where the gas is being sold at such cheap price as here in Brazil. I don’t know how much they are going to sell it to us for and I’m not planning for it yet. Today, I’m taking care of the safety of the product and testing the bottles. We have tested 100 million bottles in 13 years and we used to lose 25% of them. In the country I went to in Europe, they tested the bottles by, what they called, requalifying the bottled gas, and they only lost 3%. Here, we lost more than 25%, so we had to replace 25 million bottles at R$ 100 each.

What would you identify as a major challenge for Copagaz?

I went to Madrid once and saw a man in a filling station, looking for the bottle he was trying to get filled. They put the bottle away because the test was out of date. So, they take care of each bottle. Here, in Brazil, we have lots of bottles that are out of date and Copagaz is working to rectify this situation.

What about your company? Copagaz is a family-owned company. Do you plan to list it on the stock exchange? Do you plan to partner with other companies? What is your strategy and vision?

For the first time, my company is all over the country and I’m growing. I’m selling more today than I was six months ago. Then, I have to sell 1 million tons a year – I’m trying to do this. My company has a good reputation; everyone knows Copagaz is a good company. I have to have enough bottles to meet the demand. I’m producing more than 1 million bottles a year at my factory Ibrava and I’m free to deliver it in other states.

Do you also have international ambitions?

No, not yet.

Finally, do you have a message about Brazil?

Brazil is doing well today. When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the government put the Bolsa Família (Family Allowance), 30 million Brazilians received this financial aid. We noticed this significant change because Copagaz is producing 150,000 tonnes every year. It is the people from Brazil who are doing it; those people who now have means to eat more are also contributing to the growth of Copagaz. Brazil is on a right path with President Dilma Vana Rousseff at its head;. I think her rule in Brazil will be successful.

What are your personal challenges?

I worked for 23 years every day to implement the bottled gas safety law. Today, I’m happy because everything has been completed and we have started to take care of the bottles that were killing people.

Ueze Elias Zahran, CEO of Grupo Zahran/Copagaz (Brazil- Marcopolis)

You are a very successful entrepreneur; many people have talked about your life. What do you identify as major success factors in your life? What is your life creed? How did you manage to create the company from nothing? What is your advice for the future generation of entrepreneurs?

I am expanding the company all over the country. Brazil has 27 states and Copagaz is in 21. We have increased by 150,000 tonnes of gas - selling more every year. My company sells 550,000 tonnes a year, which represents half of Argentina.

My mother was crazy about the gas stove. We were living in South Mato Grosso (Mato Grosso do Sul); she came here (to Sao Paulo) once to see her relatives and saw them using a gas stove. Then, she went down to the city where I was living, Campo Grande, and asked me for a stove like that. So, I came here and bought one with four bottles because they had to send it by train and it took a lot of time to reach our city. She was so happy when she saw the blue fire below the pan of food; I saw a grown-up woman and mother happy with gas, which we didn’t have in our country.

So, I came to Sao Paulo to be a LPG reseller for a company called Supergasbras and I have been studying about gas since then. When I talked to the president of this company, I saw that I could be distributor too because I knew more than him about gas. I asked him what the weight of a bottle of gas was and he didn’t know, but I did. They were bottles of 13 kilograms and 5 kilograms. That day I told myself I was going to be a distributor too, I was not going to be only a concessionary. I worked a whole year to get an LPG company license - that was in 1955. Since then, I’ve been working in the field for 57 years.

At that time, here in the country we had 21 companies. Today, out of those 21 companies, there are only four left - 17 disappeared. My company is one of those four. I continue working to find a way to use gas safely. I used to go to Europe once a year and we would have what they call the World Forum of Gas. I used to go there and take ideas to use in my own business. The butane-propane gas is very dangerous, but they have laws that makes it safer. I worked for 23 years to put those laws in place here in Brazil and they started doing so last year; we start working and testing the gas bottles every ten years. Today I am working to make it safe, but I haven’t finished yet.

I would like to focus on a message about Mato Grosso. You started your business career in Mato Grosso. You’ve seen the evolution of the business over there. In your opinion, what is the future of Mato Grosso and can you speak a little bit about the business opportunities over there?

Mato Grosso is a big state – it spans about 1.5 million square kilometers. The rain happens when they say it is going to, and the land is very good and cheap. So, when the government divided the state into two states – Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso, all the European people from the south of Brazil – Santa Catarina, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul – went to Mato Grosso and they bought everything - all the land - and they started producing cotton, soy beans and a lot of grains. The state is rich and very good now; I don’t think it has anything else to offer – only the land. Although, besides agriculture, there is also industry since Mato Grosso is in the middle of the country – we don’t have sea, but we have a river that flows straight to Argentina and Uruguay, so we can export from there.

What about tourism and culture in Mato Grosso?

They are crazy about the Pantanal. They say that it is from Pantanal that the moon appeared. It is a wild country with native grass and full of cattle. I’ve only been there twice. When the rain comes the Pantanal is a sea; we can’t see any land, only water. It certainly is a place to visit from a tourist’s perspective.

What is your vision for Mato Grosso?

Now, my vision is for the whole of Brazil because I started working with my factory. I am expanding the company all over the country. Brazil has 27 states and Copagaz is in 21. I don’t want to be in the other six because I call them water states; the Amazon and Maranhão are just water - there are no people over there, no people that use gas at least. Here, in the country, we have increased by 150,000 tonnes of gas - selling more every year. Overall, the gas companies in Brazil are selling 7,500,000 tonnes a year. My company sells 550,000. That’s good enough for me, but I am hoping to make it bigger and different. 550,000 is half of Argentina – Argentina uses 1 million tonnes of gas a year. So, I’m looking after this gas business (Copagaz) and my television network, and I’m trying to improve both of these businesses. I’m not trying to make another kind of business, I have enough already.

What is your opinion of the gas distribution sector? There are only 8 companies controlling the market, whereas there are 50 such companies in Mexico. Is it good or bad? What is your assessment of the gas distribution sector in Brazil?

For over 50 years, I had news on my desk about bottled gas killing families. Inside Brazil, I introduced a law regarding bottled gas safety in 1996 – I had to do this step by myself. You cannot play with bottled gas; it is serious and when you work irresponsibly with it, somebody will pay for it. We used to have whole families killed by bottled gas, and my company was working for more than 23 years to stop it. Finally, the regulatory agency accepted my idea and they put the law into practice. Today, we still have 31 million out of 100 million bottles that haven’t been tested yet. We have to test them every 10 years.

One statistic says that Petrobras supplies 70% of the gas needs of Brazil. What are your projections for the price of gas in Brazil and is it going to be affordable for the people?

Petrobras sells 100% of the whole gas in Brazil. They say they’re going to raise the price. I don’t know yet whether they’ll do it or not because the government is very careful with the price of bottled gas. They showed the government that the price here is the lowest in the whole world. They showed that it costs R$ 0.20 per person per day (in a family of five people), because a bottle of gas costs R$ 43 and it lasts 43 days so that’s R$ 1 a day. In a family of five people, that’s R$ 0.20 per person. There’s no other place in the world where the gas is being sold at such cheap price as here in Brazil. I don’t know how much they are going to sell it to us for and I’m not planning for it yet. Today, I’m taking care of the safety of the product and testing the bottles. We have tested 100 million bottles in 13 years and we used to lose 25% of them. In the country I went to in Europe, they tested the bottles by, what they called, requalifying the bottled gas, and they only lost 3%. Here, we lost more than 25%, so we had to replace 25 million bottles at R$ 100 each.

What would you identify as a major challenge for Copagaz?

I went to Madrid once and saw a man in a filling station, looking for the bottle he was trying to get filled. They put the bottle away because the test was out of date. So, they take care of each bottle. Here, in Brazil, we have lots of bottles that are out of date and Copagaz is working to rectify this situation.

What about your company? Copagaz is a family-owned company. Do you plan to list it on the stock exchange? Do you plan to partner with other companies? What is your strategy and vision?

For the first time, my company is all over the country and I’m growing. I’m selling more today than I was six months ago. Then, I have to sell 1 million tons a year – I’m trying to do this. My company has a good reputation; everyone knows Copagaz is a good company. I have to have enough bottles to meet the demand. I’m producing more than 1 million bottles a year at my factory Ibrava and I’m free to deliver it in other states.

Do you also have international ambitions?

No, not yet.

Finally, do you have a message about Brazil?

Brazil is doing well today. When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the government put the Bolsa Família (Family Allowance), 30 million Brazilians received this financial aid. We noticed this significant change because Copagaz is producing 150,000 tonnes every year. It is the people from Brazil who are doing it; those people who now have means to eat more are also contributing to the growth of Copagaz. Brazil is on a right path with President Dilma Vana Rousseff at its head;. I think her rule in Brazil will be successful.

What are your personal challenges?

I worked for 23 years every day to implement the bottled gas safety law. Today, I’m happy because everything has been completed and we have started to take care of the bottles that were killing people.

Ueze Elias Zahran, CEO of Grupo Zahran/Copagaz (Brazil- Marcopolis)

You are a very successful entrepreneur; many people have talked about your life. What do you identify as major success factors in your life? What is your life creed? How did you manage to create the company from nothing? What is your advice for the future generation of entrepreneurs?

I am expanding the company all over the country. Brazil has 27 states and Copagaz is in 21. We have increased by 150,000 tonnes of gas - selling more every year. My company sells 550,000 tonnes a year, which represents half of Argentina.

My mother was crazy about the gas stove. We were living in South Mato Grosso (Mato Grosso do Sul); she came here (to Sao Paulo) once to see her relatives and saw them using a gas stove. Then, she went down to the city where I was living, Campo Grande, and asked me for a stove like that. So, I came here and bought one with four bottles because they had to send it by train and it took a lot of time to reach our city. She was so happy when she saw the blue fire below the pan of food; I saw a grown-up woman and mother happy with gas, which we didn’t have in our country.

So, I came to Sao Paulo to be a LPG reseller for a company called Supergasbras and I have been studying about gas since then. When I talked to the president of this company, I saw that I could be distributor too because I knew more than him about gas. I asked him what the weight of a bottle of gas was and he didn’t know, but I did. They were bottles of 13 kilograms and 5 kilograms. That day I told myself I was going to be a distributor too, I was not going to be only a concessionary. I worked a whole year to get an LPG company license - that was in 1955. Since then, I’ve been working in the field for 57 years.

At that time, here in the country we had 21 companies. Today, out of those 21 companies, there are only four left - 17 disappeared. My company is one of those four. I continue working to find a way to use gas safely. I used to go to Europe once a year and we would have what they call the World Forum of Gas. I used to go there and take ideas to use in my own business. The butane-propane gas is very dangerous, but they have laws that makes it safer. I worked for 23 years to put those laws in place here in Brazil and they started doing so last year; we start working and testing the gas bottles every ten years. Today I am working to make it safe, but I haven’t finished yet.

I would like to focus on a message about Mato Grosso. You started your business career in Mato Grosso. You’ve seen the evolution of the business over there. In your opinion, what is the future of Mato Grosso and can you speak a little bit about the business opportunities over there?

Mato Grosso is a big state – it spans about 1.5 million square kilometers. The rain happens when they say it is going to, and the land is very good and cheap. So, when the government divided the state into two states – Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso, all the European people from the south of Brazil – Santa Catarina, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul – went to Mato Grosso and they bought everything - all the land - and they started producing cotton, soy beans and a lot of grains. The state is rich and very good now; I don’t think it has anything else to offer – only the land. Although, besides agriculture, there is also industry since Mato Grosso is in the middle of the country – we don’t have sea, but we have a river that flows straight to Argentina and Uruguay, so we can export from there.

What about tourism and culture in Mato Grosso?

They are crazy about the Pantanal. They say that it is from Pantanal that the moon appeared. It is a wild country with native grass and full of cattle. I’ve only been there twice. When the rain comes the Pantanal is a sea; we can’t see any land, only water. It certainly is a place to visit from a tourist’s perspective.

What is your vision for Mato Grosso?

Now, my vision is for the whole of Brazil because I started working with my factory. I am expanding the company all over the country. Brazil has 27 states and Copagaz is in 21. I don’t want to be in the other six because I call them water states; the Amazon and Maranhão are just water - there are no people over there, no people that use gas at least. Here, in the country, we have increased by 150,000 tonnes of gas - selling more every year. Overall, the gas companies in Brazil are selling 7,500,000 tonnes a year. My company sells 550,000. That’s good enough for me, but I am hoping to make it bigger and different. 550,000 is half of Argentina – Argentina uses 1 million tonnes of gas a year. So, I’m looking after this gas business (Copagaz) and my television network, and I’m trying to improve both of these businesses. I’m not trying to make another kind of business, I have enough already.

What is your opinion of the gas distribution sector? There are only 8 companies controlling the market, whereas there are 50 such companies in Mexico. Is it good or bad? What is your assessment of the gas distribution sector in Brazil?

For over 50 years, I had news on my desk about bottled gas killing families. Inside Brazil, I introduced a law regarding bottled gas safety in 1996 – I had to do this step by myself. You cannot play with bottled gas; it is serious and when you work irresponsibly with it, somebody will pay for it. We used to have whole families killed by bottled gas, and my company was working for more than 23 years to stop it. Finally, the regulatory agency accepted my idea and they put the law into practice. Today, we still have 31 million out of 100 million bottles that haven’t been tested yet. We have to test them every 10 years.

One statistic says that Petrobras supplies 70% of the gas needs of Brazil. What are your projections for the price of gas in Brazil and is it going to be affordable for the people?

Petrobras sells 100% of the whole gas in Brazil. They say they’re going to raise the price. I don’t know yet whether they’ll do it or not because the government is very careful with the price of bottled gas. They showed the government that the price here is the lowest in the whole world. They showed that it costs R$ 0.20 per person per day (in a family of five people), because a bottle of gas costs R$ 43 and it lasts 43 days so that’s R$ 1 a day. In a family of five people, that’s R$ 0.20 per person. There’s no other place in the world where the gas is being sold at such cheap price as here in Brazil. I don’t know how much they are going to sell it to us for and I’m not planning for it yet. Today, I’m taking care of the safety of the product and testing the bottles. We have tested 100 million bottles in 13 years and we used to lose 25% of them. In the country I went to in Europe, they tested the bottles by, what they called, requalifying the bottled gas, and they only lost 3%. Here, we lost more than 25%, so we had to replace 25 million bottles at R$ 100 each.

What would you identify as a major challenge for Copagaz?

I went to Madrid once and saw a man in a filling station, looking for the bottle he was trying to get filled. They put the bottle away because the test was out of date. So, they take care of each bottle. Here, in Brazil, we have lots of bottles that are out of date and Copagaz is working to rectify this situation.

What about your company? Copagaz is a family-owned company. Do you plan to list it on the stock exchange? Do you plan to partner with other companies? What is your strategy and vision?

For the first time, my company is all over the country and I’m growing. I’m selling more today than I was six months ago. Then, I have to sell 1 million tons a year – I’m trying to do this. My company has a good reputation; everyone knows Copagaz is a good company. I have to have enough bottles to meet the demand. I’m producing more than 1 million bottles a year at my factory Ibrava and I’m free to deliver it in other states.

Do you also have international ambitions?

No, not yet.

Finally, do you have a message about Brazil?

Brazil is doing well today. When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the government put the Bolsa Família (Family Allowance), 30 million Brazilians received this financial aid. We noticed this significant change because Copagaz is producing 150,000 tonnes every year. It is the people from Brazil who are doing it; those people who now have means to eat more are also contributing to the growth of Copagaz. Brazil is on a right path with President Dilma Vana Rousseff at its head;. I think her rule in Brazil will be successful.

What are your personal challenges?

I worked for 23 years every day to implement the bottled gas safety law. Today, I’m happy because everything has been completed and we have started to take care of the bottles that were killing people.

Ueze Elias Zahran, CEO of Grupo Zahran/Copagaz (Brazil- Marcopolis)

You are a very successful entrepreneur; many people have talked about your life. What do you identify as major success factors in your life? What is your life creed? How did you manage to create the company from nothing? What is your advice for the future generation of entrepreneurs?

I am expanding the company all over the country. Brazil has 27 states and Copagaz is in 21. We have increased by 150,000 tonnes of gas - selling more every year. My company sells 550,000 tonnes a year, which represents half of Argentina.

My mother was crazy about the gas stove. We were living in South Mato Grosso (Mato Grosso do Sul); she came here (to Sao Paulo) once to see her relatives and saw them using a gas stove. Then, she went down to the city where I was living, Campo Grande, and asked me for a stove like that. So, I came here and bought one with four bottles because they had to send it by train and it took a lot of time to reach our city. She was so happy when she saw the blue fire below the pan of food; I saw a grown-up woman and mother happy with gas, which we didn’t have in our country.

So, I came to Sao Paulo to be a LPG reseller for a company called Supergasbras and I have been studying about gas since then. When I talked to the president of this company, I saw that I could be distributor too because I knew more than him about gas. I asked him what the weight of a bottle of gas was and he didn’t know, but I did. They were bottles of 13 kilograms and 5 kilograms. That day I told myself I was going to be a distributor too, I was not going to be only a concessionary. I worked a whole year to get an LPG company license - that was in 1955. Since then, I’ve been working in the field for 57 years.

At that time, here in the country we had 21 companies. Today, out of those 21 companies, there are only four left - 17 disappeared. My company is one of those four. I continue working to find a way to use gas safely. I used to go to Europe once a year and we would have what they call the World Forum of Gas. I used to go there and take ideas to use in my own business. The butane-propane gas is very dangerous, but they have laws that makes it safer. I worked for 23 years to put those laws in place here in Brazil and they started doing so last year; we start working and testing the gas bottles every ten years. Today I am working to make it safe, but I haven’t finished yet.

I would like to focus on a message about Mato Grosso. You started your business career in Mato Grosso. You’ve seen the evolution of the business over there. In your opinion, what is the future of Mato Grosso and can you speak a little bit about the business opportunities over there?

Mato Grosso is a big state – it spans about 1.5 million square kilometers. The rain happens when they say it is going to, and the land is very good and cheap. So, when the government divided the state into two states – Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso, all the European people from the south of Brazil – Santa Catarina, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul – went to Mato Grosso and they bought everything - all the land - and they started producing cotton, soy beans and a lot of grains. The state is rich and very good now; I don’t think it has anything else to offer – only the land. Although, besides agriculture, there is also industry since Mato Grosso is in the middle of the country – we don’t have sea, but we have a river that flows straight to Argentina and Uruguay, so we can export from there.

What about tourism and culture in Mato Grosso?

They are crazy about the Pantanal. They say that it is from Pantanal that the moon appeared. It is a wild country with native grass and full of cattle. I’ve only been there twice. When the rain comes the Pantanal is a sea; we can’t see any land, only water. It certainly is a place to visit from a tourist’s perspective.

What is your vision for Mato Grosso?

Now, my vision is for the whole of Brazil because I started working with my factory. I am expanding the company all over the country. Brazil has 27 states and Copagaz is in 21. I don’t want to be in the other six because I call them water states; the Amazon and Maranhão are just water - there are no people over there, no people that use gas at least. Here, in the country, we have increased by 150,000 tonnes of gas - selling more every year. Overall, the gas companies in Brazil are selling 7,500,000 tonnes a year. My company sells 550,000. That’s good enough for me, but I am hoping to make it bigger and different. 550,000 is half of Argentina – Argentina uses 1 million tonnes of gas a year. So, I’m looking after this gas business (Copagaz) and my television network, and I’m trying to improve both of these businesses. I’m not trying to make another kind of business, I have enough already.

What is your opinion of the gas distribution sector? There are only 8 companies controlling the market, whereas there are 50 such companies in Mexico. Is it good or bad? What is your assessment of the gas distribution sector in Brazil?

For over 50 years, I had news on my desk about bottled gas killing families. Inside Brazil, I introduced a law regarding bottled gas safety in 1996 – I had to do this step by myself. You cannot play with bottled gas; it is serious and when you work irresponsibly with it, somebody will pay for it. We used to have whole families killed by bottled gas, and my company was working for more than 23 years to stop it. Finally, the regulatory agency accepted my idea and they put the law into practice. Today, we still have 31 million out of 100 million bottles that haven’t been tested yet. We have to test them every 10 years.

One statistic says that Petrobras supplies 70% of the gas needs of Brazil. What are your projections for the price of gas in Brazil and is it going to be affordable for the people?

Petrobras sells 100% of the whole gas in Brazil. They say they’re going to raise the price. I don’t know yet whether they’ll do it or not because the government is very careful with the price of bottled gas. They showed the government that the price here is the lowest in the whole world. They showed that it costs R$ 0.20 per person per day (in a family of five people), because a bottle of gas costs R$ 43 and it lasts 43 days so that’s R$ 1 a day. In a family of five people, that’s R$ 0.20 per person. There’s no other place in the world where the gas is being sold at such cheap price as here in Brazil. I don’t know how much they are going to sell it to us for and I’m not planning for it yet. Today, I’m taking care of the safety of the product and testing the bottles. We have tested 100 million bottles in 13 years and we used to lose 25% of them. In the country I went to in Europe, they tested the bottles by, what they called, requalifying the bottled gas, and they only lost 3%. Here, we lost more than 25%, so we had to replace 25 million bottles at R$ 100 each.

What would you identify as a major challenge for Copagaz?

I went to Madrid once and saw a man in a filling station, looking for the bottle he was trying to get filled. They put the bottle away because the test was out of date. So, they take care of each bottle. Here, in Brazil, we have lots of bottles that are out of date and Copagaz is working to rectify this situation.

What about your company? Copagaz is a family-owned company. Do you plan to list it on the stock exchange? Do you plan to partner with other companies? What is your strategy and vision?

For the first time, my company is all over the country and I’m growing. I’m selling more today than I was six months ago. Then, I have to sell 1 million tons a year – I’m trying to do this. My company has a good reputation; everyone knows Copagaz is a good company. I have to have enough bottles to meet the demand. I’m producing more than 1 million bottles a year at my factory Ibrava and I’m free to deliver it in other states.

Do you also have international ambitions?

No, not yet.

Finally, do you have a message about Brazil?

Brazil is doing well today. When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the government put the Bolsa Família (Family Allowance), 30 million Brazilians received this financial aid. We noticed this significant change because Copagaz is producing 150,000 tonnes every year. It is the people from Brazil who are doing it; those people who now have means to eat more are also contributing to the growth of Copagaz. Brazil is on a right path with President Dilma Vana Rousseff at its head;. I think her rule in Brazil will be successful.

What are your personal challenges?

I worked for 23 years every day to implement the bottled gas safety law. Today, I’m happy because everything has been completed and we have started to take care of the bottles that were killing people.

Declaraciones de Edison Lobao sobre gas natural (Brazil)

Brasil, que actualmente importa de Bolivia cerca del 35 por ciento del gas natural que consume, halló reservas del combustible que pueden garantizar la autosuficiencia del país en unos cinco años, aseguró el ministro de Minas y Energía, Edison Lobao, en declaraciones citadas hoy por el diario O Globo.

Un estudio de la Agencia Nacional de Petróleo (ANP, regulador) citado con exclusividad por el diario carioca asegura que Brasil tiene reservas de gas natural en áreas terrestres suficientes para elevar la oferta en un 360 por ciento en la próxima década.

Según el informe la oferta nacional de gas natural puede saltar de los actuales 65 millones de metros cúbicos por día a cerca de 300 millones de metros cúbicos entre 2025 y 2027.

"Brasil está listo para vivir la era de oro de su gas natural", afirmó el ministro de Minas y Energía al ser interrogado sobre el estudio y tras prever la autosuficiencia en cinco años.

El estudio de la ANP identificó cerca de 28 cuencas sedimentares en tierra con potencial para la producción de gas natural.

Entre tales cuencas destaca la del Paranaíba, en el nordeste del país, en donde la petrolera privada OGX descubrió en 2010 reservas que llegan a 15 billones de pies cúbicos de gas natural y de las que pueden ser extraídos cerca de 15 millones de metros cúbicos diarios del combustible, la mitad de lo hoy importado desde Bolivia.

El 96 por ciento del área en las cuencas con potencial identificadas por la ANP aún no fue explorada, según la agencia reguladora, que está preparando nuevas subastas para ofrecer esos bloques en concesión.

La mayor parte del gas natural producido por Brasil es extraído junto a petróleo de las reservas descubiertas en aguas profundas del océano Atlántico.

Brasil consume actualmente 86 millones de metros cúbicos de gas natural por día, de los que importa 30 millones de Bolivia.

Según las previsiones de la ANP, por tratarse de un combustible más económico y menos contaminante, el consumo del gas natural podrá llegar a cerca de 200 millones de metros cúbicos diarios en 2020, para cuando el país ya estará produciendo ese volumen.

Declaraciones de Edison Lobao sobre gas natural (Brazil)

Brasil, que actualmente importa de Bolivia cerca del 35 por ciento del gas natural que consume, halló reservas del combustible que pueden garantizar la autosuficiencia del país en unos cinco años, aseguró el ministro de Minas y Energía, Edison Lobao, en declaraciones citadas hoy por el diario O Globo.

Un estudio de la Agencia Nacional de Petróleo (ANP, regulador) citado con exclusividad por el diario carioca asegura que Brasil tiene reservas de gas natural en áreas terrestres suficientes para elevar la oferta en un 360 por ciento en la próxima década.

Según el informe la oferta nacional de gas natural puede saltar de los actuales 65 millones de metros cúbicos por día a cerca de 300 millones de metros cúbicos entre 2025 y 2027.

"Brasil está listo para vivir la era de oro de su gas natural", afirmó el ministro de Minas y Energía al ser interrogado sobre el estudio y tras prever la autosuficiencia en cinco años.

El estudio de la ANP identificó cerca de 28 cuencas sedimentares en tierra con potencial para la producción de gas natural.

Entre tales cuencas destaca la del Paranaíba, en el nordeste del país, en donde la petrolera privada OGX descubrió en 2010 reservas que llegan a 15 billones de pies cúbicos de gas natural y de las que pueden ser extraídos cerca de 15 millones de metros cúbicos diarios del combustible, la mitad de lo hoy importado desde Bolivia.

El 96 por ciento del área en las cuencas con potencial identificadas por la ANP aún no fue explorada, según la agencia reguladora, que está preparando nuevas subastas para ofrecer esos bloques en concesión.

La mayor parte del gas natural producido por Brasil es extraído junto a petróleo de las reservas descubiertas en aguas profundas del océano Atlántico.

Brasil consume actualmente 86 millones de metros cúbicos de gas natural por día, de los que importa 30 millones de Bolivia.

Según las previsiones de la ANP, por tratarse de un combustible más económico y menos contaminante, el consumo del gas natural podrá llegar a cerca de 200 millones de metros cúbicos diarios en 2020, para cuando el país ya estará produciendo ese volumen.

Declaraciones de Edison Lobao sobre gas natural (Brazil)

Brasil, que actualmente importa de Bolivia cerca del 35 por ciento del gas natural que consume, halló reservas del combustible que pueden garantizar la autosuficiencia del país en unos cinco años, aseguró el ministro de Minas y Energía, Edison Lobao, en declaraciones citadas hoy por el diario O Globo.

Un estudio de la Agencia Nacional de Petróleo (ANP, regulador) citado con exclusividad por el diario carioca asegura que Brasil tiene reservas de gas natural en áreas terrestres suficientes para elevar la oferta en un 360 por ciento en la próxima década.

Según el informe la oferta nacional de gas natural puede saltar de los actuales 65 millones de metros cúbicos por día a cerca de 300 millones de metros cúbicos entre 2025 y 2027.

"Brasil está listo para vivir la era de oro de su gas natural", afirmó el ministro de Minas y Energía al ser interrogado sobre el estudio y tras prever la autosuficiencia en cinco años.

El estudio de la ANP identificó cerca de 28 cuencas sedimentares en tierra con potencial para la producción de gas natural.

Entre tales cuencas destaca la del Paranaíba, en el nordeste del país, en donde la petrolera privada OGX descubrió en 2010 reservas que llegan a 15 billones de pies cúbicos de gas natural y de las que pueden ser extraídos cerca de 15 millones de metros cúbicos diarios del combustible, la mitad de lo hoy importado desde Bolivia.

El 96 por ciento del área en las cuencas con potencial identificadas por la ANP aún no fue explorada, según la agencia reguladora, que está preparando nuevas subastas para ofrecer esos bloques en concesión.

La mayor parte del gas natural producido por Brasil es extraído junto a petróleo de las reservas descubiertas en aguas profundas del océano Atlántico.

Brasil consume actualmente 86 millones de metros cúbicos de gas natural por día, de los que importa 30 millones de Bolivia.

Según las previsiones de la ANP, por tratarse de un combustible más económico y menos contaminante, el consumo del gas natural podrá llegar a cerca de 200 millones de metros cúbicos diarios en 2020, para cuando el país ya estará produciendo ese volumen.

Declaraciones de Edison Lobao sobre gas natural (Brazil)

Brasil, que actualmente importa de Bolivia cerca del 35 por ciento del gas natural que consume, halló reservas del combustible que pueden garantizar la autosuficiencia del país en unos cinco años, aseguró el ministro de Minas y Energía, Edison Lobao, en declaraciones citadas hoy por el diario O Globo.

Un estudio de la Agencia Nacional de Petróleo (ANP, regulador) citado con exclusividad por el diario carioca asegura que Brasil tiene reservas de gas natural en áreas terrestres suficientes para elevar la oferta en un 360 por ciento en la próxima década.

Según el informe la oferta nacional de gas natural puede saltar de los actuales 65 millones de metros cúbicos por día a cerca de 300 millones de metros cúbicos entre 2025 y 2027.

"Brasil está listo para vivir la era de oro de su gas natural", afirmó el ministro de Minas y Energía al ser interrogado sobre el estudio y tras prever la autosuficiencia en cinco años.

El estudio de la ANP identificó cerca de 28 cuencas sedimentares en tierra con potencial para la producción de gas natural.

Entre tales cuencas destaca la del Paranaíba, en el nordeste del país, en donde la petrolera privada OGX descubrió en 2010 reservas que llegan a 15 billones de pies cúbicos de gas natural y de las que pueden ser extraídos cerca de 15 millones de metros cúbicos diarios del combustible, la mitad de lo hoy importado desde Bolivia.

El 96 por ciento del área en las cuencas con potencial identificadas por la ANP aún no fue explorada, según la agencia reguladora, que está preparando nuevas subastas para ofrecer esos bloques en concesión.

La mayor parte del gas natural producido por Brasil es extraído junto a petróleo de las reservas descubiertas en aguas profundas del océano Atlántico.

Brasil consume actualmente 86 millones de metros cúbicos de gas natural por día, de los que importa 30 millones de Bolivia.

Según las previsiones de la ANP, por tratarse de un combustible más económico y menos contaminante, el consumo del gas natural podrá llegar a cerca de 200 millones de metros cúbicos diarios en 2020, para cuando el país ya estará produciendo ese volumen.

Dubai´s DEWA to share renewable energy expertise (gulftoday)

ABU DHABI: The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has compared notes with the Abu Dhabi champions of renewable energy, Masdar Institute, where the latter showed them how saving 15,000 tonnes of carbon equals to taking 3,300 cars off Abu Dhabi’s roads each year.

Dewa’s delegation was from the Strategy and Business Development Division and was led by the Vice President of New Business Development, Fatima Al Shamsi. “We wanted to create closer ties and share expertise between the two organisations in the fields of clean and renewable energy,” said Al Shamsi.

She was in the company of the Senior Manager of Production Projects, Jamal Al Hamadi, and the Deputy Manager of Production Projects, Masoud Al Kamali.

They were welcomed by the Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber. He said he appreciated the visit, which aimed at “sharing expertise and best practices to optimise the implementation of renewable-energy state-of-the-art technologies.” The Masdar officials escorted their visitors to the 10MW solar power plant.

Dr Al Jaber said that currently, the power generated by the 10MW power plant and the 1MW rooftop panels on Masdar Institute is surplus to total consumption within Masdar City. He said, “The state-of-the-art photovoltaic plants achieve annual carbon savings of approximately 15,000 tonnes — the equivalent of taking 3,300 cars off Abu Dhabi’s roads each year.”

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi plans for seven per cent of its energy to come from sustainable sources by 2020, up from less than 1 per cent today. Dewa’s representatives were briefed about Masdar’s renewable energy projects in the UAE and worldwide.

The representatives were given a guided tour around Masdar City which concluded with a visit to the Masdar Institute for Renewable Energy.

The tour also included a visit to the Wind Tower, inspired by the traditional “barjeel.” The tower captures upper level winds and cools the open-air public square below.

The visitors were also briefed on other ongoing Masdar projects, including the 100MW concentrated solar power plant, Shams One.

Dubai´s DEWA to share renewable energy expertise (gulftoday)

ABU DHABI: The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has compared notes with the Abu Dhabi champions of renewable energy, Masdar Institute, where the latter showed them how saving 15,000 tonnes of carbon equals to taking 3,300 cars off Abu Dhabi’s roads each year.

Dewa’s delegation was from the Strategy and Business Development Division and was led by the Vice President of New Business Development, Fatima Al Shamsi. “We wanted to create closer ties and share expertise between the two organisations in the fields of clean and renewable energy,” said Al Shamsi.

She was in the company of the Senior Manager of Production Projects, Jamal Al Hamadi, and the Deputy Manager of Production Projects, Masoud Al Kamali.

They were welcomed by the Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber. He said he appreciated the visit, which aimed at “sharing expertise and best practices to optimise the implementation of renewable-energy state-of-the-art technologies.” The Masdar officials escorted their visitors to the 10MW solar power plant.

Dr Al Jaber said that currently, the power generated by the 10MW power plant and the 1MW rooftop panels on Masdar Institute is surplus to total consumption within Masdar City. He said, “The state-of-the-art photovoltaic plants achieve annual carbon savings of approximately 15,000 tonnes — the equivalent of taking 3,300 cars off Abu Dhabi’s roads each year.”

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi plans for seven per cent of its energy to come from sustainable sources by 2020, up from less than 1 per cent today. Dewa’s representatives were briefed about Masdar’s renewable energy projects in the UAE and worldwide.

The representatives were given a guided tour around Masdar City which concluded with a visit to the Masdar Institute for Renewable Energy.

The tour also included a visit to the Wind Tower, inspired by the traditional “barjeel.” The tower captures upper level winds and cools the open-air public square below.

The visitors were also briefed on other ongoing Masdar projects, including the 100MW concentrated solar power plant, Shams One.

Dubai´s DEWA to share renewable energy expertise (gulftoday)

ABU DHABI: The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has compared notes with the Abu Dhabi champions of renewable energy, Masdar Institute, where the latter showed them how saving 15,000 tonnes of carbon equals to taking 3,300 cars off Abu Dhabi’s roads each year.

Dewa’s delegation was from the Strategy and Business Development Division and was led by the Vice President of New Business Development, Fatima Al Shamsi. “We wanted to create closer ties and share expertise between the two organisations in the fields of clean and renewable energy,” said Al Shamsi.

She was in the company of the Senior Manager of Production Projects, Jamal Al Hamadi, and the Deputy Manager of Production Projects, Masoud Al Kamali.

They were welcomed by the Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber. He said he appreciated the visit, which aimed at “sharing expertise and best practices to optimise the implementation of renewable-energy state-of-the-art technologies.” The Masdar officials escorted their visitors to the 10MW solar power plant.

Dr Al Jaber said that currently, the power generated by the 10MW power plant and the 1MW rooftop panels on Masdar Institute is surplus to total consumption within Masdar City. He said, “The state-of-the-art photovoltaic plants achieve annual carbon savings of approximately 15,000 tonnes — the equivalent of taking 3,300 cars off Abu Dhabi’s roads each year.”

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi plans for seven per cent of its energy to come from sustainable sources by 2020, up from less than 1 per cent today. Dewa’s representatives were briefed about Masdar’s renewable energy projects in the UAE and worldwide.

The representatives were given a guided tour around Masdar City which concluded with a visit to the Masdar Institute for Renewable Energy.

The tour also included a visit to the Wind Tower, inspired by the traditional “barjeel.” The tower captures upper level winds and cools the open-air public square below.

The visitors were also briefed on other ongoing Masdar projects, including the 100MW concentrated solar power plant, Shams One.

Dubai´s DEWA to share renewable energy expertise (gulftoday)

ABU DHABI: The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has compared notes with the Abu Dhabi champions of renewable energy, Masdar Institute, where the latter showed them how saving 15,000 tonnes of carbon equals to taking 3,300 cars off Abu Dhabi’s roads each year.

Dewa’s delegation was from the Strategy and Business Development Division and was led by the Vice President of New Business Development, Fatima Al Shamsi. “We wanted to create closer ties and share expertise between the two organisations in the fields of clean and renewable energy,” said Al Shamsi.

She was in the company of the Senior Manager of Production Projects, Jamal Al Hamadi, and the Deputy Manager of Production Projects, Masoud Al Kamali.

They were welcomed by the Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber. He said he appreciated the visit, which aimed at “sharing expertise and best practices to optimise the implementation of renewable-energy state-of-the-art technologies.” The Masdar officials escorted their visitors to the 10MW solar power plant.

Dr Al Jaber said that currently, the power generated by the 10MW power plant and the 1MW rooftop panels on Masdar Institute is surplus to total consumption within Masdar City. He said, “The state-of-the-art photovoltaic plants achieve annual carbon savings of approximately 15,000 tonnes — the equivalent of taking 3,300 cars off Abu Dhabi’s roads each year.”

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi plans for seven per cent of its energy to come from sustainable sources by 2020, up from less than 1 per cent today. Dewa’s representatives were briefed about Masdar’s renewable energy projects in the UAE and worldwide.

The representatives were given a guided tour around Masdar City which concluded with a visit to the Masdar Institute for Renewable Energy.

The tour also included a visit to the Wind Tower, inspired by the traditional “barjeel.” The tower captures upper level winds and cools the open-air public square below.

The visitors were also briefed on other ongoing Masdar projects, including the 100MW concentrated solar power plant, Shams One.

Petrobras' Brazil oil and gas output announced (pennenergy)

Petrobras’ average oil and natural gas output in Brazil and abroad was 2,700,814 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in February. Considering only the fields in Brazil, production added up to 2,455,636 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe).

This was 1.1% less than the total volume lifted last January due to the scheduled shutdown of the Caraguatatuba-Taubaté Gas Pipeline (Gastau); to the completion of the extended well test (EWT) of Aruanã, in the Campos Basin; and on account of the shutdown of FPWSO Dynamic Producer, which was performing the EWT at Carioca Northeast, due to a failure in the vertical production testing column.

In February, oil output exclusively from domestic fields reached 2,098,064 barrels per day, while natural gas production totaled 56,849,000 cubic meters.

The volume of oil and natural gas produced at the fields located in countries where Petrobras has operations closed February at 245,178 boed. Natural gas production abroad was 16.983 million cubic meters per day. 

Iracema 

On February 27, Petrobras started producing oil at FPSO BW Cidade de São Vicente, located in the area of Iracema, in the Santos Basin pre-salt cluster. It was connected to well RJS-647, at a water depth of 2,212 meters.

This platform is expected to operate in the area for approximately six months in order to collect, among other data, technical information about reservoir behavior and on oil flow in subsea lines. This data will support the development of the final production system for the region, which is slated to go on stream in late 2014 with the installation of the FPSO Cidade de Mangaratiba.

The project is being developed by the consortium formed by Petrobras (operator, with a 65% stake), BG E&P Brasil Ltda. - BG Group (25%), and Petrogal Brasil S.A. (10%).

Baúna and Piracaba 

On February 17, with the completion of the Extended Well Tests underway in the Tiro and Sídon areas, the Company submitted to the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) the Declaration of Commerciality for those oil and gas accumulations, which became known as the Baúna and Piracaba, respectively.

These fields are located in exploratory block BM-S-40 (100% Petrobras), in the southern portion of the Santos Basin, a shallow water area nestled in the post-salt region.

Petrobras' Brazil oil and gas output announced (pennenergy)

Petrobras’ average oil and natural gas output in Brazil and abroad was 2,700,814 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in February. Considering only the fields in Brazil, production added up to 2,455,636 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe).

This was 1.1% less than the total volume lifted last January due to the scheduled shutdown of the Caraguatatuba-Taubaté Gas Pipeline (Gastau); to the completion of the extended well test (EWT) of Aruanã, in the Campos Basin; and on account of the shutdown of FPWSO Dynamic Producer, which was performing the EWT at Carioca Northeast, due to a failure in the vertical production testing column.

In February, oil output exclusively from domestic fields reached 2,098,064 barrels per day, while natural gas production totaled 56,849,000 cubic meters.

The volume of oil and natural gas produced at the fields located in countries where Petrobras has operations closed February at 245,178 boed. Natural gas production abroad was 16.983 million cubic meters per day. 

Iracema 

On February 27, Petrobras started producing oil at FPSO BW Cidade de São Vicente, located in the area of Iracema, in the Santos Basin pre-salt cluster. It was connected to well RJS-647, at a water depth of 2,212 meters.

This platform is expected to operate in the area for approximately six months in order to collect, among other data, technical information about reservoir behavior and on oil flow in subsea lines. This data will support the development of the final production system for the region, which is slated to go on stream in late 2014 with the installation of the FPSO Cidade de Mangaratiba.

The project is being developed by the consortium formed by Petrobras (operator, with a 65% stake), BG E&P Brasil Ltda. - BG Group (25%), and Petrogal Brasil S.A. (10%).

Baúna and Piracaba 

On February 17, with the completion of the Extended Well Tests underway in the Tiro and Sídon areas, the Company submitted to the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) the Declaration of Commerciality for those oil and gas accumulations, which became known as the Baúna and Piracaba, respectively.

These fields are located in exploratory block BM-S-40 (100% Petrobras), in the southern portion of the Santos Basin, a shallow water area nestled in the post-salt region.