Brazil is expected to loosen regulations in the oil industry on contracting goods and services after current restrictions dampened demand during a recent licensing round, an industry group said.
The changes, under study by the Energy Ministry and that still need to be signed by president Dilma Rousseff, would make Brazilian projects more competitive amid low oil prices, said Jorge Camargo, the head of the Brazilian Petroleum Institute, a lobby known as IBP. The Energy Ministry said in an e-mailed response it is studying new rules to incorporate Brazilian engineering, which would free producers to hire larger amounts of goods and services overseas.
If the presidential decree is signed, Brazil could ease limits on foreign-built oil equipment to reduce development bottlenecks. They would be the first changes to a Buy-Brazil model introduced a decade ago to spur investments in technology and manufacturing in Latin America’s biggest economy. The amount of minimum local content varies depending on each project in Brazil.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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