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The arrest of the longtime head of Brazil's nuclear energy utility on corruption charges could disrupt a plan to revive Brazilian nuclear ambitions whose roots go back to its atomic-bomb program in the 1980s. Othon Luiz Pinheiro da Silva, a retired admiral, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly taking 4.5 million reais ($1.35 million) in... Continue Reading →
NEW YORK, July 30 (IFR) - Struggling Brazil took another blow to the chin this week when S&P put the country's BBB- credit rating on negative outlook, setting the stage for a potential downgrade to junk. The other agencies could soon follow S&P's lead, as the government of President Dilma Rousseff fails to get to... Continue Reading →
Petrobras - Clarification on News: Board of Directors’ Meeting 07/29/2015 Rio de Janeiro, July 29, 2015 – Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras hereby responds to Official Letters n.º 295/2015/CVM/SEP/GEA-1 and BM&FBovespa n.º 2448/2015-SAE, which request clarifications on an article published on July 28, 2015 in O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, as follows: OFFICIAL LETTER... Continue Reading →
Prosecutors in Brazil said on Wednesday former Petrobras executive Renato Duque had unfairly favored Italy's Saipem SpA on a contract for an undersea gas pipeline for the Lula and Cernambi offshore subsalt fields. The accusations came in an emailed summary of charges against Duque, who is on trial over allegations of corruption, and four other... Continue Reading →
Technip SA swung to a loss in the second quarter after Europe’s biggest oil-services provider took a writedown amid an industry downturn it expects to last for longer than anticipated. The loss reached 306.9 million euros ($336.7 million) compared with a profit of 158 million euros the previous year, the Paris-based company said Thursday in... Continue Reading →
Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it’s preparing for a “prolonged downturn” by cutting thousands of jobs and slashing billions of dollars in investments over the next two years. The shares gained the most in almost six months. The company, which in April said it was confident prices would return to $90 a barrel in three... Continue Reading →
Brazil’s central bank raised its key rate by 50 basis points for a sixth straight meeting and signaled that borrowing costs are high enough to slow inflation toward its target. The bank’s board, led by President Alexandre Tombini, boosted the Selic rate to 14.25 percent Wednesday as forecast by 50 of 58 economists surveyed by... Continue Reading →
Mexico started its annual program to lock in oil sales for the coming year as a shield against a further drop in prices, three people with direct knowledge said. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are among the banks involved, said the people, who asked not to be... Continue Reading →
A new note from Macquarie's Vikas Dwivedi underscores the challenge now facing offshore projects, saying "Offshore projects even more at risk than U.S. shale." Why? Because the projects' break-even points are much higher, given all the investment that goes into them. Read More
When Marcelo Odebrecht was transferred to prison last week after his company was charged with cheating Petrobras out of R$6.4bn ($1.9bn), he became the latest member of Brazil’s elite to be sucked into the country’s biggest-ever corruption scandal — and also one of the most unusual. The 47-year-old is president and chief executive of Odebrecht — the Brazilian... Continue Reading →
Brazil Energy Insight 