I am honored to welcome you all to this event organized by EAGE and the Brazilian geoscience societies SBGf and ABGP. I could not be happier to be part of the technical committee that organized the First EAGE Conference on Equatorial Margin Deep Water, to be held from the 15th to the 27th of August 2023 in wonderful Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

When we talk about the MEQ, the Equatorial Margin, in Brazil, we consider five important sedimentary basins that add up to more than 900,000 km2, an area equivalent to about 6.5 times the exploratory polygon of the Brazilian Pre-Salt. Moreover, in addition to its energy generation potential, we must consider that this area covers six states that form two important Brazilian geographic regions: the North, represented in the MEQ by the States of Amapá, Pará and Maranhão, and the Northeast, represented by the States from Piauí, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte.

These six Brazilian states represent approximately a population of 33 million people with a GDP of approximately 110 billion dollars. Generating discoveries and producing energy in these regions will mean the generation of considerable financial values, not only for the companies directly involved in the O&G sector, and for tax collection for municipal and state governments, as well as the generation of thousands of jobs for the population that lives in these regions.

In environmental terms, today, the history of the O&G industry in the Brazilian offshore registers records in the care of the environment, with environmental licensing practiced with the best techniques and international standards.

No less important is the synergy of the O&G industry with the generation of alternative and sustainable energies, and technologies for decarbonization in the context of energy diversification. The North and Northeast regions of Brazil can be considered a mega province of hybrid solar and wind energy generation. In them, approximately three Gigawatts are generated per year, which represents a significant part of the 25% of these energy sources in the Brazilian Electric Matrix.

There are also good prospects for developments, in the MEQ area, for CCUS projects, tidal energy, harnessing geothermal potential, and biofuels.

Considering, in addition, the important discoveries in basins on the South American equatorial margin and in the African conjugates, the search for the sustainable development of such discoveries, and the geoscientific relevance of evaluating these areas as a whole, this I EAGE WS focused on the Deep Waters of the Equatorial Margin is an opportunity to share knowledge that could lead to the generation of wealth for Brazil and South America.

Internationally renowned specialists will come to Rio de Janeiro, capital of the oil industry in our country, to present their latest innovations, new technologies and new perspectives for generating value and jobs. We intend to share knowledge through technical presentations, round tables and panel discussions, with speakers selected to address subsurface topics of the New Offshore Exploratory Frontier, as well as key elements of the energy transition.

Paulo Roberto Schroeder Johann.