Push for ethanol sours in Brazil amid low sugar prices

Leslie Josephs – The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires, 05/13/2012

Sugar prices near 20-month lows have raised questions over Brazil’s future as a leader in both the sugar and ethanol industries.

The South American nation is the largest grower of sugar cane, which can be used to make sugar or ethanol from fermented sugar-cane juice. Its cane fields are growing old, and Brazil is grappling with how to reinvigorate them amid low prices and years of neglect in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

The industry is also trying to plot a course for ethanol production at a time when Brazil’s government—which determines how much ethanol is used in ethanol-gasoline blends and whose state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA,PBR -2.80% controls gasoline prices—is focusing attention on large offshore oil reserves.

Brazil oil industry, investors cheer new Petrobras CEO choice

Jeff Fick – Dow Jones/Fox Business, 01/23/2012

Picture of an oil platform belonging to the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras at the port of Rio de Janeiro (AFP/File, Vanderlei Almeida)

Brazil’s oil industry lauded the choice of Maria das Gracas Silva Foster to be the next chief executive at government-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR, PETR4.BR), while investors sent the company’s shares surging more than 4%.

Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister and also the chairman of Petrobras, nominated Foster to succeed Jose Sergio Gabrielli, and the board of directors will vote Feb. 9. The government owns a majority of Petrobras voting stock, so the appointment is widely expected to be approved. Foster would be the first woman to serve as chief executive at Latin America’s largest company by market value.

Gabrielli, who couldn’t be reached, is expected to move into politics.

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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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Petrobras says foreign oil companies not quitting Brazil

Matthew Cowley – Marketwatch, 10/18/2011

Foreign companies aren’t quitting Brazil but instead are looking for partners to help finance the large investments needed to develop mammoth offshore oil fields, the head of Brazil’s government-run oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro PBR +1.06% , or Petrobras, said in an interview with the O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.

“If you look at what’s happening with BG, what happened with Repsol, and what’s happening with Galp, apparently they’re not leaving Brazil, nor are they selling their stakes in our blocks,” the report quoted Jose Sergio Gabrielli as saying.

A number of recent press reports have suggested that foreign companies were looking to sell Brazilian assets outright, but Gabrielli said they were in fact just looking for ways to help finance the investments.

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