Brazil's national oil company Petrobras has confirmed that it is to cut back on exploration projects overseas so as to concentrate on developing its own offshore resources.

At present, the producer operates a number of projects across South America as well as in Asia and several leading African oil states, including Angola and Nigeria.

However, while no exact details have yet to be announced, company president and chief executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli has suggested that Petrobras will now begin moves to repatriate its engineers and other workers from overseas sites so as to avoid a possible shortage of trained workers at home.

"We are going to bring back some of our teams to work in Brazil," he told the Financial Times.

In particular, the company is keen to ensure that there are sufficient skilled workers for its Tupi oil field, estimated to hold up to eight billion barrels of recoverable oil and where operations are due to commence at the start of next year.

In addition, Mr Gabrielli explained that Petrobras is looking into retraining its workers with the aim of reducing the number of offshore staff working at its Santos sites, with around 40,000 employees a month currently flown by helicopter to the fields every month, to great cost to the company.

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