Brazilian oil giant Petrobras and U.S. oilfield service company Halliburton have signed a technological cooperation agreement, Petrobras announced Monday.
The two companies agreed on three projects: studies on contamination of fluids in oil wells, laboratory simulation of well production, and research on solidification of salt and carbon dioxide formations, said Petrobras.
Twelve other projects are still under negotiation.
The agreement will last three years, and can be renewed for another three years. Petrobras will invest about 15 million U.S. dollars in the
projects, the company said.
The agreement would also include the establishment of a Halliburton technologies and solutions center in 2011. The center, located on Rio de Janeiro's Fundao island, will be the first Halliburton center in South America.
Halliburton's operations manager in Latin America, Cidar Mansilla, said the center will provide a few hundred jobs for Brazilian technicians.
Cooperation between the two companies dates back to the 1960s, when Halliburton helped Petrobras in oil exploration and production in northeast Brazil's Reconcavo basin.