President of Brazil's Supreme Court, Ricardo Lewandowski and Brazil's Senate President Renan Calheiros speak during a discussion before the Senate votes on whether suspended President Dilma Rousseff should stand trial for impeachment, in Brasilia, Brazil, August 9, 2016. REUTERS/ADRIANO MACHADO Brazil's Senate voted early on Wednesday to indict President Dilma Rousseff on charges of breaking... Continue Reading →
Brazil Senate meets to indict suspended President Rousseff
Brazil's Senate met on Tuesday to vote on whether to indict President Dilma Rousseff on charges of breaking budget laws, in the long-awaited start of the trial phase of impeachment proceedings against her. With Brazil's attention focused on the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, senators in the capital Brasilia began to decide the country's... Continue Reading →
For Oil Companies $110 Billion Debt Wall Looms Over Next 5 Years
The worst may be yet to come for some strained oil services companies as $110 billion in debt, most of it junk rated, creeps closer to maturity. More than $21 billion of debt from oilfield services and drilling companies is estimated to be maturing in 2018, almost three times the total burden in 2017, according... Continue Reading →
Chevron Wins Big in $9.5 Billion Oil Pollution Case. But It’s Not Over Yet
Chevron couldn’t have won a more emphatic victory in its long-running Ecuadorian pollution case than Monday's ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York. A three-judge panel unanimously affirmed a trial court's determination that, in 2011, the lead attorney for some 30,000 Ecuadorians had won a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron by means of bribery, coercion, and... Continue Reading →
Brazilian corruption probes, bankruptcies spawn insurance boom
Insurers who sell policies limiting executives' liability from lawsuits have seen a surge in business thanks to a sprawling Brazilian corruption probe involving state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA and a rash of corporate bankruptcies. The country's so-called Directors & Officers (D&O) insurance market has more than doubled in value since 2011 based on the volumes of... Continue Reading →
Brazil’s Odebrecht gave illegal funds to Temer campaign
Marcelo Odebrecht (R), the head of Latin America's largest engineering and construction company Odebrecht SA, and Otavio Marques Azevedo (L), CEO of Brazil's second largest builder Andrade Gutierrez, are escorted by federal police officers as they leave the Institute of... REUTERS/RODOLFO BURHER Jailed Brazilian construction magnate Marcelo Odebrecht has told prosecutors he contributed illegally to... Continue Reading →
Brazil Real Fluctuates as Local Optimism Blunted by Oil Decline
Brazil’s real swung between gains and losses as oil fell and the dollar strengthened against most currencies, offsetting reassuring messages from the economic team in Latin America’s largest economy. The real gained 0.1 percent to 3.19 per dollar at 12:16 p.m. in Sao Paulo, after falling 0.2 percent. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the U.S.... Continue Reading →
International graft crackdown takes hold, FBI official says, citing Brazil
The Brazil corruption scandal hitting the highest level of government is seen by many as another sign that the $1 trillion-a-year drained from the global economy through graft is unstoppable. Federal Bureau of Investigation veteran William McMurry views it differently — the country’s high-level prosecutions of public officials show that law enforcement is cracking down... Continue Reading →
Undersea Drones Take a Breather
Until recently, oil and gas kept robots moving in more ways than one. Fossil fuel companies looking to speed up exploration, drilling, construction, and maintenance work turned to heavy-duty underwater drones known as remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, to keep their wells afloat. By last year the global market for ROV operations—mostly contract work done... Continue Reading →
Crude Slump Sees Oil Majors’ Debt Burden Double to $138 Billion
When commodity prices crashed in late 2014, oil executives could look at their mining counterparts with a sense of superiority. Back then, the world’s biggest oil companies enjoyed relatively strong balance sheets, with little borrowing relative to the value of their assets. Miners entered the slump in a very different state and some of the... Continue Reading →
