Brazil to auction rights to largest oil prospect

Jeff Fick – The Wall Street Journal, 05/23/2013

Brazil plans to auction off its largest-ever offshore oil discovery in October, selling exploration and production rights for a single prospect that is estimated to hold between eight billion and 12 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil at the country’s first presalt-bid round, regulators said Thursday.

The presalt region lies in deep Atlantic Ocean waters off Brazil’s southeast coast, with large deposits of oil trapped beneath a salt layer several miles below the surface.

Libra, as the prospect is known, is larger than the Lula field that started Brazil’s presalt craze when it was announced in 2007, said Magda Chambriard, director of Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency, or ANP. Lula is estimated to hold recoverable reserves of between five billion and eight billion barrels, Ms. Chambriard said.

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Brazil’s Gol to increase flights at expanding Viracopos airport

Dow Jones Newswires/Fox Business, 05/24/2013

Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes (GOLL4.BR, GOL) said Friday it is seeking to double the number of flights it operates out of Viracopos airport, the privately-controlled airport currently undergoing a sizable expansion.

Gol, Brazil’s second-biggest airline by market share, said in a regulatory filing it is seeking regulatory approval to operate six more flights out of Viracopos airport, located in the city of Campinas about 100 kilometers north of Sao Paulo.

Viracopos was handed over to private operators last year as part of the Brazilian government’s move to increase airport investment, especially ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. The airport, which currently serves as a hub for regional carrier Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras, could become Brazil’s biggest airport in about two decades if all the expansions proposed by the government ahead of the handover are carried out.

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Brazil’s most expensive new stadium faces its first test

Mark Byrnes – The Atlantic, 05/24/2013

Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia has begun its second life. With workers hurrying to finish the stadium in time for next month’s FIFA Confederations Cup, Brazil’s capital city’s major stadium had its official inauguration last weekend.

The original Garrincha Stadium was built in 1974, and was considered outdated and incapable of serving the country’s upcoming international sporting events long before being torn down in 2010. It is being rebuilt for $750 million, not only the most expensive stadium of the 12 being erecting in advance of the 2014 World Cup, but the most expensive such project in the country’s history.

Plagued by delays and cost overruns, local officials say the stadium, which is designed to hold more than 70,000 fans, is 97 percent done. Only about 20,000 people were allowed to attend Saturday’s inauguration event. The event itself didn’t go as smoothly as hoped; the Associated Press reported complaints from those in attendance about restroom doors without locks, visible water leaks and poor cell phone reception. The price tag has upset a lot of Brazilians too, amid worries it will struggle to find consistent use after 2014 since Brasilia doesn’t have a team in the country’s top soccer leagues.

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The pope’s pricey visit to Brazil

Gabriel Elizondo – Al Jazeera, 05/24/2013

Local and federal security officials in Brazil – primarily in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia – are increasingly preoccupied over providing protection for Pope Francis’ seven day visit to Rio de Janeiro July 22-28.

Officials here at the highest levels in recent weeks have put into place what will be the largest, most intricate, and unprecedented protection operation ever mounted in the country for a visiting high-level dignitary, officials have told me.

The papal visit presents a unique set of highly complicated security concerns never before seen in Brazil.

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Economics lessons from China and Brazil can teach each other

Katy Barnato – CNBC, 05/23/2013

They may both be “BRICs“, but China and Brazil face opposite problems and should take tips from each other, according to a report by Capital Economics published on Thursday.

“Brazil in essence needs to become more like China, with its investment growth, and China needs to learn from Brazil in how to support consumer spending,” said Capital Economics’ chief emerging markets economist, Neil Shearing, in a pan-EM report.

Growth has slowed in both the EM giants, as the impact of euro zone woes and a sluggish U.S. economy is felt in countries with previously robust economies. However, Shearing said that Brazil’s and China’s difficulties were largely rooted in country-specific, but contrasting, problems.

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The view toward closer U.S.-Brazil Relations

Julia E. Sweig – Council of Foreign Relations, 05/22/2013

Vice President Joe Biden will visit Brazil, Colombia, and Trinidad and Tobago next week. Don’t assume this American vice president is merely ceremonial: he has a significant domestic portfolio including immigration, guns, and the budget. Nor is his visit one of those bloated good will trips meant to dole out patronage or shore up support for some American foreign venture. Rather, it seems the Obama administration has decided to try and seize a huge, and to date largely missed opportunity related to jobs, energy, and prosperity in Latin America.

Why the sudden awakening? Immigration reform, the President’s top legislative priority this year, and a political must for both parties, has alerted the White House to the potential foreign policy benefit in Latin America, and not just Mexico, of solving a major domestic problem. In fact, the White House and the American public’s disposition to deal with once untouchable domestic politics around immigration, guns, energy, marijuana legalization, and maybe even Cuba, open the door for potential convergence with Latin America. And provide a chance to get beyond the usual ideological battles that too often sap diplomatic energy and patience.

Biden arrives in Brazil five months before President Rousseff’s state visit to the United States and ten years since President Bush and President Lula convened their cabinets for a joint ministerial meeting, their recognition of the strategic potential for the two democracies and their economies. Since then, dozens, if not hundreds, of ministerial and sub-ministerial meetings have followed. And we have stitched together dozens of inter-governmental dialogues, initiatives, defense, business, scientific, and educational exchanges. Yet there is still something missing between the two powers—call it a lack of ambition.

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Brazil to eliminate payroll tax on bus fares – finance minister

Reuters, 05/23/2013

Brazil will eliminate a payroll tax on bus fares, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Thursday, in another measure to curb consumer price increases as inflation hovers near the ceiling of the government’s target.

The change in the so-called PIS/Cofins tax will be announced through a provisional measure by President Dilma Rousseff in coming days, Mantega told journalists. The current tax rate was not immediately clear.

Stubbornly high inflation has dented business and consumer confidence in Latin America’s largest economy, complicating Rousseff’s efforts to boost economic growth.

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