SIX years after discovering giant offshore “pré-sal” oil deposits, so called because they lie beneath a thick layer of salt under the ocean bed, Brazil has finally auctioned the rights to develop some of its deeply buried wealth. On October 21st the Libra field, off Rio de Janeiro’s coast (see map), was sold to a consortium led by Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil firm, and including France’s Total, Anglo-Dutch Shell and China’s state-owned CNOOC and CNPC. Libra’s estimated 8 billion-12 billion barrels of recoverable oil make it the biggest oil prospect in the world to be auctioned this year. Once it reaches peak production, sometime in the next decade, it should increase Brazil’s output from 2.1m to about 3.5m barrels per day.At times simply holding the auction seemed an achievement. A flurry of unsuccessful legal challenges marked the run-up. As it was under way in a Rio beachside hotel, soldiers outside used rubber bullets and tear gas to hold back striking oil workers, masked anarchists and union activists opposed to private-sector participation in the oil business. Hundreds of troops formed a human chain to the...
via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21588392-single-bid-vast-field-shows-weakness-brazils-state-led-approach-developing-its?fsrc=rss|ame
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