Category: Brazil

Drought conditions in Brazil’s Southeast-Central West region are putting pressure on state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras to seek out prompt and near-term LNG cargoes to supplement the country’s power supply, sources said Monday. Petrobras was recently heard in the market lifting an FOB cargo from Qatar for an undisclosed price. The 157,000 cubic meter Wilpride, currently under Petrobras’ control, loaded the cargo Friday from the port of Ras Laffan, Qatar. The vessel is currently in the Gulf of Oman and is expected to arrive at the Bay of All Saints terminal in Salvador, Bahia, by late August. Petrobras has also been heard in the market looking for cargoes for FOB lifting or delivery in September, October and possibly November, ahead of the rainy season which runs from December through April. The recent push to shore up the country’s power supply comes as reservoir levels in Brazil’s Southeast-Central West […]

Click here to view full article at www.platts.com

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) , the biggest oil producer in deep waters, posted an unexpected profit decline in the second quarter after its fuel imports surged and crude exports fell. Net income fell 20 percent to 4.96 billion reais ($2.2 billion), or 0.38 reais a share, from 6.2 billion reais, or 48 centavos, a year earlier, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said yesterday in a statement. That trailed the 55-centavo average of 12 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, making this the third time in four quarters that Petrobras missed forecasts. Rising Brazilian demand for gasoline and diesel that Petrobras sells at a discount relative to international prices is leading the state-run producer to export less crude and increase refinery output. It cut sales to overseas markets by 14 percent from a year earlier, while the refining boost wasn’t enough to prevent a 56 percent surge in fuel imports. The […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

Petrobras’ oil production from frontier fields offshore is soaring. Pictured, a platform prepares for its first day working a ‘pre-salt’ field in 2010. Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO—When Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA disclosed its biggest-ever oil find, in 2007, then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva quipped that the discovery proved that God is Brazilian. New production figures are making believers out of many in the industry. Output from the "pre-salt" fields has passed 500,000 barrels of oil a day, nearly triple that of 2012, and now accounts for nearly a quarter of the company’s total production of two million barrels a day. It is a quick ramp-up for Petrobras, and is taking place in one of the most challenging oil patches in the world. The deposits lie nearly 200 miles off Brazil’s southeastern coast, buried deep below the sea floor under a thick layer of salt, […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Petrobras’ oil production from frontier fields offshore is soaring. Pictured, a platform prepares for its first day working a ‘pre-salt’ field in 2010. Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO—When Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA disclosed its biggest-ever oil find, in 2007, then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva quipped that the discovery proved that God is Brazilian. New production figures are making believers out of many in the industry. Output from the "pre-salt" fields has passed 500,000 barrels of oil a day, nearly triple that of 2012, and now accounts for nearly a quarter of the company’s total production of two million barrels a day. It is a quick ramp-up for Petrobras, and is taking place in one of the most challenging oil patches in the world. The deposits lie nearly 200 miles off Brazil’s southeastern coast, buried deep below the sea floor under a thick layer of salt, […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Brazilian energy company Petrobras said its oil production for May was up 2.2 percent to 1.98 million barrels per day when compared with the previous month. Petrobras said it credited May’s production increase to the launch of operations at four new platforms in the offshore Campos Basin. In the Campos and Santos basins alone, Petrobras said oil production increased 8.8 percent from May to 447,000 bpd, a monthly record. Brazil ranks second behind Venezuela in proven oil reserves in South America. Offshore production is complicated because much of the oil reserves lie beneath a thick layer of salt. Petrobras , formally known as Petroleo Brasileiro, has struggled with production levels in the past, but attributed the declines to scheduled maintenance at its offshore fields. The company in a statement Tuesday said new production systems are expected to enter into service this year. A four-year business management plan envisions a […]

Click here to view full article at www.upi.com

The oil unit of Danish conglomerate A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S will book a $1.7 billion impairment on its Brazilian assets as it changes strategy in the region, it said Tuesday. However, the company’s full-year guidance remains unchanged with underlying profit of about $4 billion and a group-wide result significantly above last year. Maersk Oil said it would no longer pursue growth for its business in Brazil and as a result has sold its ownership share in the Polvo field to the operator. The company bought stakes in three fields in Brazil for $2.4 billion in July 2011, but decided to take an impairment on them following appraisal drillings that came out at the lower end of expectations as well as increased development costs and a subdued oil price. It is thought that the operating partners in the remaining two fields will be able to present commercially viable development plans, the […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has surpassed 470,000 b/d in the presalt layer of the Santos and Campos basins offshore Brazil, a new daily production record according to the company. The milestone was reached with production from 24 wells, including 7-LL-22D-RJS, which was brought on stream on May 9 and is now contributing 31,000 b/d. Petrobras attributes a portion of its success in the Santos and Campos presalt to the use of a buoyancy supported riser (BSR) that connects 7-LL-22D-RJS to the Cidade de Paraty floating production, storage, and offloading vessel in Lula field. This ascending production pipeline is suspended from a submerged buoy and has led to above-average production from the new well and two other wells that attach to the Cidade de Sao Paulo FPSO via BSRs in Sapinhoa field, the company said. Petrobras expects to connect several new wells to both FPSOs with BSRs by this year’s […]

Click here to view full article at www.ogj.com

Miguel Abitbol spent almost $4,000 on television equipment to show World Cup soccer matches at his bar and restaurant in Rio de Janeiro . He’s praying there will be enough electricity to power it. Abitbol’s 48-inch (122-centimeter) set is one of 16 million expected to be sold in Brazil this year as it hosts the world’s most-watched sporting event. The kick off in June is looming as the nation contends with a drought that reduced water supply needed for hydroelectric power to near-critical levels. A blackout in February cut electricity to 6 million people. Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR3) , the state-owned energy company, is buying record amounts of liquefied natural gas in the spot market to run gas-fired power plants at full capacity and preserve water reserves. Increased competition for the fuel is narrowing the discount of Latin American prices to those in Asia , the costliest, to the […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) recently reached an oil production record of 428,000 b/d in company-operated fields in the Santos and Campos basins. The company said the new mark was a result of the increased output that came with the Mar. 17 launch of operations from the P-58 platform in the Parque das Baleias area of northern Campos. The platform has been producing 50,000 b/d through three presalt wells. Petrobras holds 100% of the rights in the area. Twenty-four production wells have been drilled overall, of which 15 are in the Campos and nine in the Santos. Production from Campos and Santos has reached 222,000 b/d and 206,000 b/d, respectively. Fifteen more production wells are expected to start up by yearend, of which 11 will be in the Santos and 4 in the Campos. Of the 15 wells, two are connected to the Cidade de Sao Paulo floating production, storage, […]

Click here to view full article at www.ogj.com

Brazil may see a mass migration of crops and farm workers from huge swaths of currently tillable lands to more temperate zones as global warming takes hold, according to leading climate experts in the country. Longtime Brazilian climate researcher Hilton Silveira Pinto points to the drought that’s cutting grain and coffee output this year as an indicator that rising global temperatures may already be impacting the country’s crops. “This is a taste of what is to come in the future,” said Pinto, a professor at the Center for Meteorological and Climate Research Applied to Agriculture at the University of Campinas. A study co-authored by Pinto that looks at projected warming trends shows Brazil’s soybean production may drop by as much as 24 percent and wheat output as much as 41 percent by 2020 as climate change reduces areas where the crops can grow. Because Brazil is increasingly helping to […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer said he sees no room for a fuel price increase before elections in October and that inflation surpassing 6.5 percent would be a “disaster.” “I don’t think so. I can’t say with complete certainty,” Temer, 73, said in an interview yesterday at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York , in response to whether Petroleo Brasileiro SA would raise fuel prices before the election. “I don’t have information about it, but I’m not seeing the possibility.” Petrobras rose 6.6 percent to 16.46 reais yesterday, the biggest jump in more than a week, after a poll showed reduced support for President Dilma Rousseff’s re-election bid. The government controls Petrobras’s board with a majority of voting shares, and investors were encouraged by the possibility of a change in administration, said Paulo Brito, an investment manager at the brokerage firm HPN Invest in Recife, Brazil . The company’s refining […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

A judicial panel in Brazil ruled a Corp. subsidiary and 10 of its employees will face criminal charges related to offshore oil spills in 2011 and 2012, the company said on Friday. The original criminal charges had been dismissed in February 2013, but an appellate court last October reinstated two counts for environmental damage and failing to immediately notify authorities. Chevron appealed, but a three-judge panel upheld the charges in a 2-1 ruling last week, sending the case back to the federal court that had dismissed the criminal complaint. Chevron has appealed last week’s decision, saying its Brazilian unit "responded appropriately and responsibly to the incident and that there is no damage to the environment or risk to human health." The charges stem from two oil spills, totaling a little more than 2,400 barrels, in the Frade field, about 75 miles off the coast of Brazil. The country’s oil […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Norwegian energy company Statoil said Friday it secured formal approval from the Brazilian government to work in the offshore Espirito Santo oil basin. "The new license is another building block for further value creation," Andre Leite, Statoil’s regional manager, said in a statement . "We look forward to working closely together with the operator in the appraisal and further development of the asset." There may be as much as 50 billion barrels of oil offshore Brazil, putting it just behind Venezuela in terms of proven oil reserves in South America. Statoil said the approval extends to the Sao Bernardo discovery in the basin off Brazil’s coast. The company declined to indicate a reserve estimate, but said the area "has an exciting oil potential." Statoil said an appraisal well drilled into the region in 2012 encountered an oil column measuring more than 600 feet thick. The Norwegian said it’s the […]

Click here to view full article at www.upi.com

A drought in Brazil is crimping water and electricity supplies, creating tensions between the country’s two largest cities and raising the prospect of rationing that stands to hurt President Dilma Rousseff’s re-election hopes. The several-week drought in Brazil’s wealthy southeastern region, home to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, is the worst in close to 50 years, and has severely depleted the reservoirs in a country that relies on hydroelectric plants for over two-thirds of its power. Ms. Rousseff won the 2010 election while promising to improve the country’s infrastructure—particularly transportation, housing and energy. But the drought—which experts say is likely to lead to power rationing this year—is now weighing on Ms. Rousseff’s expected run in the October elections. "Dilma will try to sweep this issue under the rug for as long as she can," said Adriano Pires, head of Rio-based energy consultancy CBIE. "The government will try […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

A drought in Brazil is crimping water and electricity supplies, creating tensions between the country’s two largest cities and raising the prospect of rationing that stands to hurt President Dilma Rousseff’s re-election hopes. The several-week drought in Brazil’s wealthy southeastern region, home to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, is the worst in close to 50 years, and has severely depleted the reservoirs in a country that relies on hydroelectric plants for over two-thirds of its power. Ms. Rousseff won the 2010 election while promising to improve the country’s infrastructure—particularly transportation, housing and energy. But the drought—which experts say is likely to lead to power rationing this year—is now weighing on Ms. Rousseff’s expected run in the October elections. "Dilma will try to sweep this issue under the rug for as long as she can," said Adriano Pires, head of Rio-based energy consultancy CBIE. "The government will try […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

SINGAPORE—Asian natural-gas buyers are being hit in the pocket by a combination of drought and heat in South America, as well as the coming World Cup soccer tournament. Liquefied natural gas available for sale on the spot market, which might normally be shipped to Asia by sea from the Atlantic basin, has for the past two months or so been snapped up by Brazil. The country needs to offset shortfalls in hydroelectricity output caused by dry weather. It also is building up fuel reserves to avoid embarrassing power cuts during the World Cup, which starts on June 12. Argentina has also been buying more. Extremely hot weather earlier in the Southern Hemisphere summer and shortages of domestic gas used to make electricity continue to boost its demand for imports. In a development that illustrates how gas markets are becoming more global, buying by both countries has left less fuel […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Brazil should give up electricity for Lent, a Rio de Janeiro-based analyst told Interfax on Wednesday, with a touch of gallows humour. However, it is no laughing matter: the hydropower-dependent country has just recorded the second-driest January in 80 years, and the prospect of electricity rationing looms. The 100 days between Carnival and kick-off for the 2014 World Cup now threaten to be the toughest period of Dilma Rousseff’s presidency. Rousseff, who has staked her political credibility on the lights staying on, is likely to write blank cheques for LNG to bail out the power sector. Analysts blame both the structural weakness of Brazil’s power sector – which affords the country little flexibility during supply tightness – and poor policy decisions for the situation. As reservoir levels run low, costly LNG imports appear to be the country’s last resort for the second consecutive […]

Click here to view full article at peakoil.com

Brazil’s worst drought in decades is decimating crops but breathing new life into battered commodity markets. It hardly has rained in some of the South American country’s top farming regions since the start of the year, a period when precipitation is usually the heaviest. Traders, analysts and government forecasters who were calling for record harvests in coffee, sugar and soybeans as recently as December are cutting production estimates, triggering a spike in futures prices that may translate into higher costs for consumers later in the year. Futures prices for the arabica coffee variety are up 67% since the start of the year. Raw-sugar prices have risen 8%. Soybeans, which have been affected by drought in some areas and too much rain in others, also are up 8%. The withered coffee trees and parched sugar-cane fields stand in contrast to the bumper crops that have weighed on commodities […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Brazil’s worst drought in decades is decimating crops but breathing new life into battered commodity markets. It hardly has rained in some of the South American country’s top farming regions since the start of the year, a period when precipitation is usually the heaviest. Traders, analysts and government forecasters who were calling for record harvests in coffee, sugar and soybeans as recently as December are cutting production estimates, triggering a spike in futures prices that may translate into higher costs for consumers later in the year. Futures prices for the arabica coffee variety are up 67% since the start of the year. Raw-sugar prices have risen 8%. Soybeans, which have been affected by drought in some areas and too much rain in others, also are up 8%. The withered coffee trees and parched sugar-cane fields stand in contrast to the bumper crops that have weighed on commodities […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Did you know that the drought in Brazil is so bad that some neighborhoods are only being allowed to get water once every three days?  At this point, 142 Brazilian cities are rationing water and there does not appear to be much hope that this crippling drought is going to end any time soon.  Unfortunately, most Americans seem to be absolutely clueless about all of this. In response to the recent article about how the unprecedented drought that is plaguing California right now could affect our food supply, one individual left a comment stating “if Califirnia can’t supply South America will. We got NAFTA.”  Apart from the fact that this person could not even spell “California” correctly, we also see a complete ignorance of what is going on in the rest of the planet.  The truth is that the largest country in South […]

Click here to view full article at peakoil.com

Royal Dutch Shell said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell a stake in one of its Brazilian offshore assets to Qatar’s state-owned oil and gas company for $1bn. The disposal of a 23 per cent share in Parque das Conchas project, also dubbed BC-10, to Qatari Petroleum International comes with the Anglo-Dutch major expected to step up efforts to raise cash in 2014 and 2015. Shell, Europe’s largest oil company by market value, has been accused by investors of spending too much in recent years and Ben van Beurden, new chief executive, who took the reins at the start of this year, is under pressure to improve capital discipline. As part of that, Shell is expected to sell some $15bn worth of assets over the next two years in one of the largest disposal programmes in its history. Already this year it has announced the sale of a […]

Click here to view full article at www.ft.com

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) sold part of its stake in an offshore Brazil oilfield as Europe’s largest oil company steps up disposals to offset capital spending. Shell agreed to sell a 23 percent stake in the Parque das Conchas field, or BC-10, to Qatar Petroleum International Ltd. for about $1 billion, it said in a statement today. The Hague-based company will retain a 50 percent stake and will continue to operate the field, it said. Shell is selling assets to bring down its net capital investment, or spending on projects adjusted for acquisitions and disposals, which climbed to a record $45 billion last year. Shell issued its first profit warning in a decade this month, saying fourth-quarter earnings will be about half those of a year earlier as the cost of projects rises. The BC-10 field is currently producing about 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. The […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

“It’s funny, a few years ago, everybody loved Brazil,” said Roger Tissot, a veteran consultant on Latin America energy. “And now it seems the love is gone.” Brazil once saw itself as an up-and-coming oil power that would help meet the world’s demand, but it now faces a hard reality and might have to scale back its pretensions, former energy officials, oil executives and advisers say. The country’s deep-sea bonanza has suddenly become less alluring to big, rich oil companies that had been excited about Brazil. Other promising prospects around the world have emerged instead, from fields in Africa to the shale deposits unlocked by hydraulic fracking in the United States to the tar sands of Canada. “These companies have the financial muscle and engineering capacity and technologies to move around the world,” said Ramon Espinasa, an oil specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington. “They are able […]

Click here to view full article at www.washingtonpost.com

Brazil’s Petrobras energy company said it sent notices to the Brazilian government advising that two offshore oil and gas prospects have commercial potential. Petrobas, formally known as Petroleo Brasileiro, said Thursday it submitted declarations of the commercial potential of the Franco and Sul de Tupi prospects in the energy-rich Santos Basin to the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency. Petrobas estimated the Franco prospect, which it wants to rename as the Buzios field, contains about 3.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Petrobras said it expects to have five production systems started in the field by 2020. The Sul de Tupi, which the company wants to name the Sul de Lula field, may contain as much as 128 million barrels of oil equivalent, the company said. Petrobas said first oil should come from the Sul de Lula field by the first quarter […]

Click here to view full article at www.upi.com

BP PLC said Wednesday it would write off more than $1 billion in costs related to an unsuccessful Brazilian well, but also said it made a large oil discovery in the deep water Gulf of Mexico. BP said the Pitanga exploration well on Block BM-CAOL-13 in the Camamu-Almada basin, offshore Brazil, found no commercial quantities of oil or gas. The company said it would therefore write off $1.08 billion in costs, of which $850 million relates to the value of the block […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

BP PLC said Wednesday it would write off more than $1 billion in costs related to an unsuccessful Brazilian well, but also said it made a large oil discovery in the deep water Gulf of Mexico. BP said the Pitanga exploration well on Block BM-CAOL-13 in the Camamu-Almada basin, offshore Brazil, found no commercial quantities of oil or gas. The company said it would therefore write off $1.08 billion in costs, of which $850 million relates to the value of the […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Brazil will get more than $400 billion in royalties and crude oil over the next 35 years from its share of the massive Libra offshore oil prospect, President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday. In her weekly question-and-answer column with Brazilians, Ms. Rousseff said that new production-sharing agreements for Brazil’s offshore oil discoveries ensured the country’s "sovereignty over this treasure, with great benefits for the population and our economy." Ms. Rousseff’s administration has faced criticism from Brazilians who viewed the sale of the field as delivering Brazil’s natural resources into the hands of foreign companies. Protests marred the October auction, which featured heavy security by soldiers who fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd gathered outside the hotel where the sale was held. But the auction also generated lukewarm interest from private-sector companies that balked at the terms of the production-sharing agreements and heavy government oversight […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Brazil will get more than $400 billion in royalties and crude oil over the next 35 years from its share of the massive Libra offshore oil prospect, President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday. In her weekly question-and-answer column with Brazilians, Ms. Rousseff said that new production-sharing agreements for Brazil’s offshore oil discoveries ensured the country’s "sovereignty over this treasure, with great benefits for the population and our economy." Ms. Rousseff’s administration has faced criticism from Brazilians who viewed the sale of the field as delivering Brazil’s natural resources into the hands of foreign companies. Protests marred the October auction, which featured heavy security by soldiers who fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd gathered outside the hotel where the sale was held. But the auction also generated lukewarm interest from private-sector companies that balked at the terms of the production-sharing agreements and heavy government oversight […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Petroleo Brasileiro SA or Petrobras, said Tuesday it found the first oil in the deep water of the Potiguar basin off the coast of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. The oil was found in the 1-BRS-A-1205-RNS (1-RNS-158) well, also known as Pitu, under 1.1 miles of water 34.2 miles off the coast, the company said in an note to Brazil’s financial markets regulator. Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at [email protected]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Brazil’s crude oil production fell slightly in October on reduced output from recently discovered offshore fields, the country’s National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, said Tuesday. Brazil produced an average 2.079 million barrels a day in October, down 0.7% from September but up 3.4% from October 2012, the ANP said. October’s output was undercut by operational troubles at a floating platform tapping oil deposits in Brazil’s pre-salt oil frontier, where billions of barrels of crude oil were discovered trapped under a thick layer of salt miles below the seabed, the ANP said. Pre-salt production fell to 308,400 barrels a day in October, down 6.5% from September, the ANP said. State-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, has boosted production in recent months as several new platforms were installed at offshore oil fields. The company has also completed renovations of several aging platforms in the Campos Basin, […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Brazil will triple oil production by 2035 and become a major exporter as it develops the Americas’ largest discoveries in almost four decades, the International Energy Agency said. Latin America’s largest economy will produce 6 million barrels a day in 2035 and account for one-third of the increase in global crude output, the Paris-based agency said. The IEA forecasts that Brazil will be the world’s sixth-largest producer, up from 12th now. The new production will come mostly from deposits trapped under a layer of salt more than two miles beneath the Atlantic Ocean’s floor, the so-called pre-salt fields. Deep-water fields including Libra and Lula, the largest oil discoveries in the Western Hemisphere since Mexico ’s Cantarell field in 1976, have attracted investments from Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Total SA. (FP) “The increase in oil and gas production is dependent on highly complex and capital-intensive deepwater developments, requiring […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

RIO DE JANEIRO–Brazil’s recently discovered offshore oil fields will triple the country’s current crude oil output to six million barrels per day by 2035, making Latin America’s largest country a leading producer and exporter, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. Brazil discovered billions of barrels of crude trapped under a thick layer of salt beneath the Atlantic Ocean off the country’s southeast coast, finds that will make the country the world’s sixth-largest producer and a major oil exporter, the IEA said. Development of the fields, however, will be complex and expensive when compared with other areas holding large oil reserves such as the Middle East or Russia, the IEA warned. Brazil currently produces about two million barrels of oil per day. In October, Brazil sold rights to develop one of the fields–the Libra prospect–to a group led by state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR, PETR4.BR) that also included […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

RIO DE JANEIRO—In 2006, Eike Batista strode into Rio’s opulent Copacabana Palace hotel for cocktails with a Canadian pension fund looking to play Brazil’s rise. The Brazilian entrepreneur captivated his hosts with a brazen pitch: He aimed to be the world’s richest man, and investors along for the ride would prosper, too. “The way he says it, it doesn’t sound crazy,” says Brian Gibson, then a senior vice president with the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, which organized the reception. “As an investor, you are looking for someone who is hungry,” Mr. Gibson says. “I didn’t know if he was going to be the richest or not, and I didn’t care.” Mr. Batista didn’t make it. Instead, he presided over one of the most breathtaking rise-and-fall stories in the history of business. Starting in 2006, Mr. Batista publicly listed five startups in five years, creating a Brazilian commodities empire from […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

RIO DE JANEIRO—In 2006, Eike Batista strode into Rio’s opulent Copacabana Palace hotel for cocktails with a Canadian pension fund looking to play Brazil’s rise. The Brazilian entrepreneur captivated his hosts with a brazen pitch: He aimed to be the world’s richest man, and investors along for the ride would prosper, too. “The way he says it, it doesn’t sound crazy,” says Brian Gibson, then a senior vice president with the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, which organized the reception. “As an investor, you are looking for someone who is hungry,” Mr. Gibson says. “I didn’t know if he was going to be the richest or not, and I didn’t care.” Mr. Batista didn’t make it. Instead, he presided over one of the most breathtaking rise-and-fall stories in the history of business. Starting in 2006, Mr. Batista publicly listed five startups in five years, creating a Brazilian commodities empire from […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazil’s state-run oil and gas company, Petróleo Brasileiro SA, PETR4.BR +1.37% Petroleo Brasileiro S/A Pref Brazil: Bovespa R$ 18.49 +0.25 +1.37% Oct. 25, 2013 5:08 pm Volume : 30.11M P/E Ratio 8.82 Market Cap R$232.34 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee R$3,448,640 10/25/13 Petrobras Weighs New Mechanism… 10/22/13 Brazil Seen Having to Modify O… 10/22/13 Chinese Hunt for Oil in Brazil… More quote details and news » PETR4.BR in Your Value Your Change Short position is taking steps to stem huge losses on sales of gasoline and diesel that have raised questions about its ability to implement a huge investment program. On Friday, the company’s chief executive, Maria das Graças Silva Foster, wrote in a letter to shareholders that the board of directors has been presented with a new way of calculating prices that will have a “beneficial effect” in terms of bringing domestic fuel prices […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian state-run energy company Petrobras teamed up with European oil majors and Chinese rivals on Monday to buy the country’s biggest-ever oil field with a lone bid at the minimum price, a disappointing outcome for a sale that was supposed to launch Brazil as a petroleum power. The auction, which proceeded as hundreds of protestors criticized the sale to private companies of the country’s natural resources, was notable because it sparked only a fraction of the appetite that was originally expected. Rather than attract multiple bidders and the many global energy players who had long expressed interest in fast-growing Brazilian discoveries, the auction for the giant offshore Libra oil area drew just one tepid bid from a consortium offering the minimum price allowed. Petroleo Brasileiro SA ( PETR4.SA ), as Petrobras is formally known, took 40 percent of the field in the auction, more […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com