Brazil's Espírito Santo basin carries 26 decommissioning projects approved by regulator ANP, representing close to R$5 billion in planned investment. Decom Mission has now opened a digital Challenge Portal linking those opportunities to UK supply-chain specialists.

The platform, built with the Federation of Industries of Espírito Santo (FINDES), went live in Rio de Janeiro at the ROG.e conference last month. It gives FINDES members a structured channel to source North Sea decommissioning capability as Brazil's offshore sector enters a heavier plug-and-abandonment phase.

Espírito Santo is Brazil's second-largest oil-producing state, sitting south of the Campos basin. Operators there and along the wider southeastern coast are tackling end-of-life assets built during the 2000s and 2010s development cycles.

The challenge set spans subsea wellhead removals, topsides lift-and-disposal programmes, pipeline cleaning and sectioning, and the regulatory paperwork Brazilian authorities require before any structure is abandoned in place or removed.

What does the portal actually do?

The Challenge Portal operates as a matchmaking tool. Brazilian companies post specific decommissioning challenges. Decom Mission's UK membership responds with proven North Sea experience.

Callum Falconer, Operations Director at Decom Mission, framed the logic bluntly.

"For growth-focused, UK-based decom specialists – particularly those who wish to expand beyond established markets – Brazil stands out as an opportunity that cannot, and should not, be ignored," Falconer said.

"Espírito Santo has the scale, infrastructure and ambition to become a genuine decommissioning hub. What Brazilian companies tell us they need is access to proven experience, and our members have spent decades solving these exact problems in the North Sea."

How did the partnership reach this point?

The portal marks the third milestone in a year-long relationship. Decom Mission and FINDES signed a Memorandum of Understanding in late 2025 and hosted the inaugural UK-Brazil Offshore Decommissioning Business Forum the same period. In Q1 2026, a Decom Mission-led delegation travelled to decom-es, the International Decommissioning Forum held in Espírito Santo.

That visit put UK supply-chain companies in front of senior figures from Brazilian operators, port authorities, vessel owners and investors. The launch drew figures including ASCO Deputy Head of Environmental Services & Decommissioning Simon Turner alongside FINDES CEO Roberto Campos de Lima and Decom Mission's Falconer.

What is FINDES looking to capture?

For FINDES President Paulo Baraona, the state's decommissioning pipeline is more than a maintenance task. It is a chance to reshape the local industrial base.

"With 26 approved projects and nearly R$5 billion in planned investment, we have both the responsibility and the ambition to ensure Brazilian companies lead this transition — as active partners, not just recipients of foreign expertise," Baraona said.

"The portal with Decom Mission is the practical, outcome-driven collaboration FINDES exists to enable — connecting our members with proven North Sea experience so Espírito Santo can become the hub Brazil needs," he added.

What to watch next?

The portal's first matched challenges will test whether North Sea expertise converts into Espírito Santo contract awards. Petrobras and the IOC operators active off the Brazilian southeast coast will set the timing of the bulk of the R$5bn spend. Operators also need decisions from IBAMA on plugging programmes for the older Campos basin fields before the Espírito Santo queue accelerates. The benchmark the trade will track: the volume of structured enquiries the portal processes before end-2026, and the first contract award attributable to a portal match.