Geo Travel Blog

Rapid growth is projected in the Brazilian oil industry leading to a major trickle-down effect across the nation. As the wealth generated by the industry spreads throughout the economy it is expected to give the already-booming Brazilian real estate industry a huge boost.

The Brazilian Finance Minister is confident that Brazil will become an oil super power in the next ten years as projections show that the country will have crude for half a century and will become a top ten oil exporter and an important player in international geopolitics.

Finance Minister Edison stated that production of 3.6 million barrels a day is possible by 2017, with domestic demand anticipated at 2.6 million barrels a day, leaving a possible export of 1 million (barrels a day)”. President Lula da Silva also maintains that the country plans to invest heavily in the petrochemical sector so it can sell oil derivatives and not just unrefined crude.

Much of Brazil’s oil and gas production is managed by the Brazilian Government-owned company, Petrobas . A recent Ernst & Young survey rated the company the worlds eighth biggest global company in market value.

In 2008 Petrobras was valued at a highly-respectable $95.9 billion, placing it in 37th place in the global arena. However, the recent finds, coupled with major technology advances, have caused market value to almost double to $164.8 billion.

This September saw Petrobras announcing the discovery of another deposit of oil and natural gas in Brazil’s Santos Basin. This find was in conjunction with British Gas Group and the Spanish company, Repsol. The find was made after a fourth well was drilled in the BM-S-9 block off the country’s south-eastern coast.

A find the previous week in the same region is estimated to hold between 1.2 billion to 2 billion barrels of oil and gas, although no projections are available with regard to the new find.

Petrobras will now concentrate its investment strategy on the domestic market, said Petrobras CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli, who went on to explain that the primary objective now was not to continue investing overseas, but to ensure the effective development of all the recently-discovered offshore oil reserves.

President Lula da Silvas government is proposing assigning the dominant role in Brazils petroleum industry to Petrobras in a move to increase control over the energy sector. This is currently being debated in Congress.

The Government will give Petrobas operator status for all the oil and gas finds and will serve as the commercial outlet for sales of all oil derivatives, both domestic and international. There are also plans to create another state-owned company called, Petrosal, to manage the Governments oil and gas assets. Analysts predict that this company could eventually grow larger than Petrobas.

Petrobras chief executive, Jose Sergio Gabrielli said this further boosts Brazils chances of becoming a leading producer of oil and We are in a fantastic moment.

This article was written by Ginny Naish the Marketing Director of Property Dreams Brazil, a real estate consultancy based in Joao Pessoa, Paraiba. Property Dreams Brazil can provide consultancy services with regard to property investment, land, re-location and real estate marketing. Please visit Property Dreams Brazil for further information.