Brazil has suspended its 17th licensing round which would have seen the state oil regulator ANP offering 128 offshore exploration blocks throughout the country, fearing that the plummeting oil prices and unprecedented declines in global crude demand entailing double-digit-percent CAPEX cuts will set the stage for another fiasco. With two failed pre-salt licensing rounds in November 2019 tarring the overall successful year of both Brazil and Petrobras, clouds are growing heavier around the upstream future of Brazil, once the leading deep-water investment hotspot of the Americas. This time it is not even the government’s fault – it has tried to redeem its past errors with a couple of new initiatives, however coronavirus got in the way. Up until November 2019 everything seemed to be going in the right way for Brazil – as recently as last October it had held a rather successful pre-salt auction when it managed to […]