The Effectiveness of the Infraction Notice as a Tool of the Regulation System

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the role of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) in the inspection of fluid measurements, and to present a history of improvement of the issuance of infraction notices, related to the violation of the current resolutions, in addition to their sanctioning implications to regulated agents. In order to carry out this study, the data of all infraction notices issued by the Nucleus of Insspection of Measurement of Petroleum and Natural Gas Production (NFP) from 2010 to 2015 were analyzed, showing the process of finding nonconformities on the measurement systems and how infraction's amount is calculated. In addition, the results of court judgments will be present and, finally, a comparison between the number of infraction notice issued, the infraction committed and the punitive pedagogical implications applied. Futhermore after a critical analysus of each infraction notice issued and its respective nonconmities, it is observed that the most common infraction is the divergence between the values declared in the Daily Production Report and those recorded in the flow computer of the measurement system monitored by NFP. These and other infraction notices generate financial penalties whose are set to force operators to follow the recommendation given by ANP. Petrobras, which is responsible for 94.3% of oil and gas production in Brazil, awsers for most part of infraction notices issued and has paied approximately R$250 million.