Brazil regulator says gas seen in all Sao Francisco Basin wells

Reuters, 07/11/2012

BRASILIA, July 11 (Reuters) – Oil companies are finding signs of natural gas in all the wells drilled in Brazil’s Sao Francisco Basin, an onshore petroleum frontier in the country’s Minas Gerais state, Magda Chambriard, director-general of Brazil’s petroleum regulator, ANP, said Wednesday.

There are “no dry holes” in the Sao Francisco Basin, Chambriard said during a Senate hearing in Brasilia. “They all show signs of gas.”

Development of gas in Minas Gerais could reduce energy costs for Brazil’s most important mining region and a key Brazilian manufacturing and agricultural state, Cia. Energetica de Minas Gerais, or Cemig , one of Brazil’s largest utilities and the company that controls natural gas distribution in the state, said in June.

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Brazil’s Vale may keep natgas when it sells oil

Sabrina Lorenzi – Reuters, 06/26/2012

MOJU, Brazil, June 26 (Reuters) – Vale, the world’s second-largest mining company, may keep its natural gas exploration assets if it succeeds in selling its Brazilian oil assets in order to guarantee energy supplies for its mines, a company official said on Tuesday.

The Rio de Janeiro-based mining company, the world’s largest iron ore producer, is selling its oil assets because they require too much capital to develop, Vania Somavilla, the company’s director of sustainability, told reporters at an event in Moju, in Brazil’s northern state of Para.

“Oil exploration is very capital intensive, our focus is natural gas,” she said. “We are reviewing this in a way that will allow us to keep our strategy to maintain investments in the natural gas area.”

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Brazil’s Petrobras to cut natural gas prices by 19%

Rogerio Jelmayer – Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, 10/21/2011

Brazilian state-run energy company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, will cut the price of natural gas by nearly 19% as of Nov. 1, providing some welcome news for the outlook for inflation.

In a statement published late Thursday, Petrobras said it cut prices due to prevailing market conditions.

Petrobras reviews natural gas prices each quarter in accordance with criteria taking into account domestic and international market conditions. In the previous quarter, the company reduced gas prices by 14.3%.

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