The New York Times
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Published: August 31, 2009
RIO DE JANEIRO — The Brazilian government proposed changes to existing laws on Monday to assign the primary role of developing key deep-sea oil reserves to the state-run energy giant, Petrobras, at the expense of foreign rivals.
The country’s new regulatory framework represents a nationalistic shift for Brazil, which has discovered deep-sea fields in the past two years that Petrobras says could hold tens of billions of barrels of crude oil — more than doubling the country’s current proven reserve of 14.1 billion barrels — and transform Brazil into a major global energy power.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in his weekly radio broadcast that the new regulatory framework represented a “new Independence Day” for Brazil.
The proposal, which needs congressional approval, would confine foreign companies to mostly subservient roles to Petrobras and a new state-owned oil company still to be created.
Brazil currently awards exploration and production concessions through bidding, which is open to foreign companies. While existing concessions in the “pre-salt” area would be maintained, the remaining 72 percent of the subsalt acreage still to be explored, more than 41,000 square miles, would be left in government hands, to be developed by Petrobras, said the presidential chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff. Production-sharing contracts would be granted to the companies offering the Brazilian government the largest portion of the profits.
The government also said it would establish a New Social Fund to ensure that future oil revenues were regularly funneled to education and poverty reduction.
In the next five years, Petrobras plans to spend more than $30 billion on the development of the offshore fields. The company said Monday in a statement that it might sell new shares to finance development of the new fields.
terça-feira, 1 de setembro de 2009
Changes Proposed to Benefit State’s Oil Giant in Brazil
Publicado por Agência de Notícias às 1.9.09
Marcadores: Internacionais sobre o Brasil
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