Brazil faces the strategic challenge of structuring a policy for the second life of offshore assets, transforming decommissioning into an opportunity for a circular economy and sustainable industrial development.
Brazil’s oil and gas sector has reached a stage of maturity in facility decommissioning, but a crucial question remains open: how to leverage the remaining value of assets that have completed their original functions? The transition from a model focused solely on removal to a “second life” market requires a regulatory architecture that is yet to be designed.
Recent data presented by Petrobras during ROG.e 2026 illustrates the potential of this agenda. In the last five years, over 420 kilometers of flexible pipelines have been reused in projects such as the Marlim and Voador fields, resulting in significant carbon emission savings, estimated at 17,000 tons of CO₂. The challenge now is to scale this practice beyond isolated initiatives, structuring an environment that combines operational safety and economic viability.
Pillars for a New Regulatory Framework
To transform reuse and repurposing into established practices, the country needs to articulate four central axes: regulatory, environmental, tax, and industrial. Reuse, which maintains the original purpose, and repurposing, which assigns a new function to the asset, require rigorous technical integrity criteria, based on references such as API Spec 17J and material aging standards.
The need for clarity goes beyond engineering. While operators are responsible for the technical decision on the asset’s remaining life, the State must provide the necessary legal backing. As sector analysis points out, the transition between the end of the original operation and the beginning of a new phase cannot create “vacuums” of responsibility.
Changing the purpose should not create a discontinuity between the obligations arising from the original operation and those associated with the new use. Nor should it allow the utilization of part of the infrastructure to leave the decommissioning of components that will not be reused unresolved.
Recycling and International Integration
When an asset exhausts its useful life, the focus should shift to a robust recycling chain. Brazil’s potential adherence to the Hong Kong Convention, which establishes global standards for the safe and environmentally sound management of ships and floating structures, is seen as an essential step. Alignment with these standards will not only mitigate environmental risks but also open doors for the country to integrate into the global ship recycling market.
In addition, the tax treatment under the Repetro-Sped regime needs adjustment. Currently, the system focuses on the production phase and can act as a financial barrier to the reuse of equipment. Creating customs conditions that do not penalize circularity is perhaps the key to making “second life” economically attractive.
The advancement of this sector places Brazil at a public management crossroads: whether to treat decommissioning as a burdensome environmental liability or as a frontier of industrial innovation. Integration between the ANP, Ibama, and tax policy is the next major step to ensure that the national offshore sector continues to generate value, even after the conclusion of its traditional operational cycles.
