Vera Lúcia Coutinho Barbosa
Lovingly known as “Dona Vera”
18 January 1950 — 30 May 2021 · aged 71
Petrobras reservoir engineer and one of the first women on Brazil's offshore frontier
Niterói, Brazil Born in Salvador, Bahia Resting at Cemitério Parque da Colina, NiteróiAbout Vera
When Vera Coutinho reported for duty in Macaé in 1975, a supervisor informed her there was no ladies' room on the offshore support base. By Friday there was one, with a hand-lettered sign in her handwriting: “Engineer. Please knock.”
Born in Salvador, Bahia, in 1950, the daughter of a customs clerk and a baiana who sold acarajé on weekends, Vera was the first in her family to attend university. She graduated in engineering from the Escola Politécnica of the Federal University of Bahia in 1972, one of four women among two hundred, and joined Petrobras in 1974, the year a huge new field was discovered in the Campos Basin.
For thirty-one years she modeled oil reservoirs, first at the Macaé base and then at CENPES, the company's research center in Rio, helping to coax production out of fields others had written off. Younger engineers, many of them women, remember her as a tireless mentor who would explain a decline curve on a napkin and then refuse to let you leave until you could draw it back from memory. She was nobody's idea of a delicate flower, and she was always the first to arrive and the last to leave.
Away from the office she sailed Guanabara Bay in a leaky little boat named Dendê, cooked a Bahian moqueca that her friends still try to replicate, danced samba de roda at any family party and followed Esporte Clube Bahia with the devotion of the long-suffering. She married Eduardo Barbosa, a marine biologist, in 1977, and they made their home in Niterói, with a view of the bay she insisted on calling “my office window.”
Vera died on 30 May 2021, aged seventy-one, at home in Niterói after a long illness, with the bay glittering outside. She is survived by Eduardo, her daughters Luciana and Mariana, three grandchildren and her brother Jorge.
“A reservoir is like a person: it only gives its best to someone who listens.”
- Faith
- Catholic
- Place of birth
- Salvador, Bahia
- Resting place
- Cemitério Parque da Colina, Niterói
- Passed away
- 30 May 2021, Niterói
Funeral Service
Tuesday, 1 June 2021 at 07:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Engineering Degree
Universidade Federal da Bahia, Escola Politécnica1968 – 1972 · Salvador
One of four women in a class of two hundred.
Reservoir Engineer
Petrobras, Macaé Operations Base1974 – 1995 · Macaé, Rio de Janeiro
Worked on some of the earliest fields in the Campos Basin.
Married Eduardo Barbosa
1977 · Rio de Janeiro
Forty-four years of marriage, one boat and one disputed moqueca recipe.
Senior Engineer
Petrobras, CENPES1995 – 2005 · Rio de Janeiro
Led modeling teams and mentored a new generation of women engineers.
Mentor
Women in Engineering, Petrobras1998 – 2018 · Rio de Janeiro
Coached more than fifty young engineers through their first decade.
Recognition for Thirty-One Years of Service
Petrobras2005 · Rio de Janeiro
Received on her last day with a standing ovation and a very large cake.
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Family & connections
Vera is survived by
- Eduardo Barbosa· Spouse
- Luciana Barbosa Pires· Daughter
- Mariana Barbosa· Daughter
- Jorge Coutinho· Brother
- 3 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Vera.
Knew Vera? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
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Engineer in Houston, former mentee
I moved to Houston in 2012 and call my mother in Niterói every Sunday. Dona Vera used to call me on the same day, just to ask if I'd eaten. Her last message to me was: “Reservoirs are patient. So should you be.” I will be, Dona Vera.
- CR
Fellow sailor, Niterói Yacht Club
Vera's little boat Dendê leaked, listed and was loved. She never raced, only sailed, and she always brought a thermos of coffee to share with whoever was nearby. On the bay today, every boat will dip its flag. She taught us that the point is the water.
- ED
Colleague at CENPES
Vera could look at a pressure curve and tell you not only what the reservoir was doing, but what it was thinking. She was never wrong about the well, and never unkind about the person who was. We were lucky to work for her and luckier to be her friends.
- DM
Neighbor in Niterói for thirty years
She brought me moqueca every time I felt low, and never told me she'd noticed. Last week I stood on my balcony and looked at the bay and I thought, there's her office window. She'll be watching the sunset for all of us.
- JC
Brother, Salvador
Vera left Salvador at twenty-three with one suitcase and a recipe for acarajé. She came home every Carnival with a pocket full of novelties for the neighbor's kids. My big sister taught me how to read, and how to come back. Descanse em paz, minha irmã.
- CR
Reservoir engineer she mentored
My first week at CENPES I was terrified. Dona Vera put me at the desk beside hers and said, “Don't worry, the oil doesn't know you're nervous.” Eleven years later I lead a modeling team. I keep a napkin with a decline curve she drew for me in my wallet.
