Brazil: One Might As Well Write It Off -- Another Lost Decade

Updates

January 10, 2014: note the remarks below -- in which I allude to the fact that I avoided investing in shares in Petrobras as soon as it occurred to me that the country wouldn't risk its sandy beaches. Now an update: Brazil's oil euphoria hit reality hard. The Washington Post is reporting:   

When fields said to hold billions of barrels of oil were discovered off the coast here, exuberant government officials said the deep-sea prize would turn Brazil into a major energy player.

More than six years later, the outlook for Brazil’s oil industry, much like the Brazilian economy itself, is more sobering. Oil production is stagnant, the state-controlled oil company, Petrobras, is hobbled by debt, and foreign oil companies are wary of investing here.

Original Post

 

On September 19, 2012, MDW linked a Forbes story and posted the following: Unless the federal government regulates fracking across the board, the Bakken continues to look very, very good. How good?

Read the article Don sent from Forbes magazine.

The Bakken is not mentioned but these plays are:

• the Arctic: the Dutch can't help but notice that Shell has given up drilling this year; the company has spent $5 billion (with a "b") so far "scratching the surface of the Burger A well; permits not in place to develop Beaufort wells (the "permitorium" problem); paid $2 billion (with a "b") back in 2008 for the rights to this debacle; 
• the Gulf of Mexico: "BP's terminal experience" -- 'nuf said 
• Canadian oil sands: "very tetchy local legislators" 
• off-shore Brazil: MDW wrote this play off long ago; country won't risk white sandy beaches; 
• Russia: "where the biggest unconventional challenge rests"; operators simply don't trust Russia -- Forbes 
• China: the state oil companies will resist foreign intrusion (except for the technology)

And now today this story: Brazil gives Chevron and Transocean 30 days to halt all drilling off-shore.

This  to a Motley Fool story and anyone who hasn't written off Brazil as a dependable country for developing its oil and gas resources is also a fool.

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The End of Love, Anna Abreu