Adrian Lara directs GlobalData’s upstream analysis team in charge of conducting quantitative and qualitative research for oil and gas activity in the Americas region. His team monitors the key producing and planned assets in the region and oversees the methodology for specific asset valuations including forecasting assumptions in production and capital expenditure. Adrian has several years of experience as an oil and gas industry analyst, having held different positions within Pemex, where he focused on analysis of oil and gas fundamentals in the context of upstream exporting strategies and international trading. 

Adrian was also a visiting research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in Oxford, UK, where his research focused on oil supply scenarios in the Western Hemisphere. He has a Master of Science in Mineral and Energy Economics from the Colorado School of Mines, with a specialization in oil and gas from the Institut Français du Pétrole. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).

1. What do you hope the audience will learn from this webinar?

I’d like the audience to gain insight on details related to the production forecast for Brazilian pre-salt resources. There is an enormous potential for these resources to be developed but there also big challenges some of which pertain to incentives to be provided by the government and other to the timeliness of FPSO deployment and final well productivity. I also think Brazil’s oil and gas sector outlook has to be assessed with a comprehensive time-period view considering the last 10 years of development to somehow put in perspective the volatility of the last 3 years and other near-term challenges.

2. What discussions do you look forward to having with the audience?

I think talking about how the pre-salt projects are moving forward in a more constrained equipment and services sector would be relevant. Also discussing possible future sales or farm-outs for offshore deepwater blocks or fields would be an interesting discussion in the context of Petrobras’ unknown strategy for divestment of upstream assets.

3. What do you enjoy most about your role?

Covering the oil and gas sector in the Americas allows me to assess the strategies that players such as IOCs, NOCs, government agencies use in different countries in order to improve their position. In most countries of the continent, other than the US, there is still an important involvement of government agencies through policy or fiscal regulations. However there is still significant variance among countries in the degree the sector openness, clarity of rules, economic and political stability making it very interesting to identify key supply drivers.

4. How did you get into the industry?

I was recruited by the trading arm of Pemex (known in the sector as PMI) about 12 years ago. It was a formative experience. The middle position of the trading arm allowed me to have a exposure to the international functioning of the sector, the organization of the Pemex subsidiaries and the way the  NOC interacts with government and other smaller players. In fact at that time the company was already showing signs of declining productivity in its key offshore fields and the company was well aware of the financial limitations that would eventually lead to a first energy reform attempt in 2008 and the more recent one from 2013.

Join Adrian in the GlobalData webinar ‘Growing Crude Production in Brazil Despite a Conspiracy of Corruption, Low Oil Prices, and Recession‘. Register now!