Banca de DEFESA: IGOR GABRIEL ERENO CAVALLI

THE SERGIPANO PETROLEUM INNOVATION SYSTEM IN FACE OF PETROBRAS DISINVESTMENTS: THE REORGANIZATION OF INNOVATION FROM CHANGES IN THE MARKET

Regional Innovation System; Triple Helix; Petrobras Disinvestments; Oil and Natural Gas Industry; Onshore Fields; Deverticalization; Sergipean Economy

This paper carries out an institutional-evolutionary analysis of the closure of Petrobras' activities in the state of Sergipe. The justifications for Petrobras' divestments are listed, linking them to the major trends in the sector's evolution, mainly de-verticalization and the transition from onshore to offshore field operations. The results for Sergipe's Regional Innovation System are analyzed, focusing on R&D institutions, anchor companies and regional service providers. The results of the research point to a strong capacity for resilience in the regional sector and a complex transition of R&D institutions to adapt to the new constitution of the industry, which is more occupied by private governance.The results of this analysis revealed that Petrobras' divestments had a significant impact on the region, with the flight of the workforce being the main challenge faced by local companies. In addition, the decrease in the level of business activity was a direct consequence of this situation. The context was made even more complex by the difference in timing in relation to other oil Local Productive Arrangements (APLs) in the Northeast, which recovered earlier and became preferred destinations for the sergipean workforce. This discrepancy in time has contributed to the prolonged migration of human resources from the region, delaying the recovery of the sector in Sergipe and making the training of qualified workers one of the main challenges of this recovery.