Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer will prioritize infrastructure concessions this year as a way to showcase an improving political environment and rule of law, before offering stakes in state companies in 2017. Several highways and airports are almost ready to be put up for tender. Such deals are less controversial than those involving strategic assets,... Continue Reading →
Pemex Changes Contracts, Says Providers Can Now Pay Their Debt
Petroleos Mexicanos said rig operators including Perforadora Latina, Oro Negro and Grupo R can make their bond payments after the state oil company renegotiated contracts. Pemex, as the company is known, reviewed 53 rig leasing agreements, according to an e-mailed statement in response to questions from Bloomberg News. Over the next 12 months, Pemex will... Continue Reading →
Exxon CEO Says Argentina Shale Investment May Exceed $10 Billion
Exxon Mobil Corp. may invest more than $10 billion in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale formation in the next decades, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson said Thursday. The oil giant has so far invested $200 million in the world’s second largest shale gas deposit, Tillerson said after meeting with Argentine President Mauricio Macri in... Continue Reading →
Brazil’s Exploding Debt-to-GDP Is Going to Become a Problem Soon
Reining in Brazil’s mammoth budget is no small feat, no matter how good you are. Cut discretionary spending, and risk blowback from an already frustrated electorate. Raise taxes, you could exacerbate the nation’s crushing recession. Privatize government companies? Beware the wrath of the unions. Shrink social security? It’ll take decades to manifest itself on the... Continue Reading →
Petrobras CEO Parente returns to fix company again
New chief executive of Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Pedro Parente, gestures during his inauguration ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2, 2016. REUTERS/SERGIO MORAES The man who oversaw the transformation of Petrobras from a lumbering state oil monopoly into a thriving public-private partnership more than a decade ago is back in... Continue Reading →
Brazil’s judge suspends Odebrecht lawsuit in sign of plea deal
Thu Jun 2, 2016 Reuters Brazilian judge Sergio Moro has suspended one of the lawsuits against executives of engineering conglomerate Odebrecht SA for 30 days, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Thursday, signaling potential plea bargain deals with prosecutors investigating a massive graft scheme. A spokeswoman for Moro's office did not immediately respond to... Continue Reading →
Brazil oil group expects bill ending subsalt exclusivity soon
June 2, 2016 9:58am EDT Reuters Brazil's lower house of Congress could pass a bill in July ending the exclusive right of state-run oil company Petrobras to operate new projects in the deep-sea offshore area known as the subsalt, the head of Brazil's oil industry association IBP said on Thursday. Jorge Camargo, speaking at a... Continue Reading →
Brazil’s BNDES to Sell Assets, Seeks to Lure Private Investment
Brazil’s state development bank BNDES will sell equity assets and utilize concessions and privatizations as it seeks to attract the private investment needed to pull Latin America’s largest economy out of recession, according to the bank’s new president. Maria Silvia Bastos Marques took over as head of the bank known as BNDES on Wednesday, saying... Continue Reading →
UPDATE 1-Court ruling casts shadow over Brazil offshore oil sector
A Brazilian appeals court has ruled that a Liberian mortgage is invalid for a Brazilian-owned oil production ship, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday, casting further doubt over the future of secured lending for such vessels in the world's largest deepwater market. The court in São Paulo upheld a February ruling... Continue Reading →
Temer’s Blunders Are Rousseff’s Hope Back to Brazil Presidency
Believe it or not, it might be a reality.... When Dilma Rousseff stood down as Brazil’s president last month to face an impeachment trial, it looked all but certain she wouldn’t come back. Yet a series of setbacks for her interim replacement, Michel Temer, may win her the few votes she needs to return to... Continue Reading →
Brazil Energy Insight 