The Washington Post features an excellent article on Petrobras and its five-year, $ 174 billion initiatie to provide rights, vessels, drilling systems and oil platforms to drill up billions of barrels of oil.
Brazil was still an oil importer five years ago, it became today a net oil exporter (Brazil is completely self-sufficient in both oil and electricity).
José Sergio Gabrielli,, Petrobras’ president said last week “It’s going to change the role of Brazil in the geopolitics of oil”. By 2020, Brazil will produce 3,9 million barrels a day. The Brazilian proven oil reserves would rise form 14,4 billion barrels to more than 30 billion barrels; this puts Brazil in the same league as major oil exporters as Qatar, Kazahstan and Nigeria.

Read the full article here.

Tags: petrobras 2020

Brazil is already gifted with more than 85% of its electricity coming from hydro plants, to sustain its further growth for energy it is, next to opening new hydro plans, also tapping into wind-energy.  The country is very well positioned towards wind energy, especially in the Northern part of the country.

French power equipment and train company Alstom SA announced a plan to install a wind-turbine assembly plant in Brazil.
The assembly plant will be installed in Bahia and it ploans to invest around EUR 20 million in a plant to assemble up to 300 megawatts of wind-generation capacity a year.

Alstom´s Philippe Cochet, who heads the group´s wind-power operations, said the company´s announcement “confirms its strategy in the region and its aim to become a key player in the Brazilian wind market.”

The new wind turbine assembly facility could start operating in early 2011, Alstom said.

Of course, the above  is no coincidence, Alstom is also in the running with Siemens for the bullet train Rio – Sao Paulo.
The same Siemsn by the way, which is also turning its eyes to the massive wind energy potential in Brazil, by producing wind turbines locally.

And now that we are in the Copenhagen mood: Brazil is working with UNDP on a massive CFC-elimination project:

Tags: alstom wind energy brazil, UNDP brazil CFC

People seem to have a misconception about the buying power in Brazil; especially in the rich thriving cities like Curitibia, Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Florianopolis.
A new study reveals that Sao Paulo is the 3d most expensive city in the world, with only Oslo and Copenhagen proceeding it.
The study was based on product price comparisons of 26 products in 33 countries.
Shockingly enough there is no American city at all on the list.

Here’s the ranking:

1. Oslo, Norway
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Sao Paulo, Brasil
4. Paris, France
5. Reykjavik, Iceland
6. Stockholm, Sweden
7. Helsinki, Finland
8. Dublin, Ireland
9. Sydney, Australia
10. Rome, Italy
11. Tokyo, Japan
12. Amsterdam, Netherlands
13. Vienna, Austria
14. Brussels, Belgium
15. Berlin, Germany
16. Cape Town, South Africa

And Sao Paulo does indeed have spending power (not even referring to Campinas).  Just go a night out in Sao Paulo, you’ll be surprised by the sheer size of the Paulista Jeunesse Dorée.

Tags: sao paulo cost of living

Last time we were in Montevideo, the works of the new container terminal (the biggest of South America) ongoing.  This week, Katoen Natie, the Belgian value-added logistic operator opened its new 190 million USD container terminal in Montevideo. Katoen Natie is much more active in Latin America than it is in Asia, it has more than 30 operations in Brazil.

Meanwhile, the family Huts of Katoen Natie is also active as a project developer in Uruguay, building a complete town: Jacksonville, in the Zonamerica. They bought the Alesianen convent with 560 hectares and are making alotments in that zone with schools, hospitals, a Regency hotel,…

Meanwhile in Rio de Janeiro, Eike Batista, Brazil’s richest man is building Porto Açu, a complete new harbor and container terminal.

Below an interview with Fernand Huts of Katoen Natie in Montevideo today:

Tags: katoen natie montevideo

The quality of Belgian newspapers today is quite in contrast to the quality of Brazilian  newspapers.  De Morgen started its downward trend from 2006 on and now also De Standaard became pure pulp and Bloomberg copy- paste.

We follow-up news in  Brazil through O Globo and Folha Sao Paulo.  Both excellent newspaper, but you need a subscription on the printed edition before you can browse the digital edition online.   Globo even launched its digital version on Kindle, the first newspaper in Latin America. And of course you had Brazilian economical newspapers like the excellent Valor Econômico or Jornal do Comercio.  But it they could never seduce me to take a subscription, for the same reasons as De Tijd and De Standaard in Belgium can no longer seduce me to take a subscription: a lack of true journalism and too much copy-paste of online material that is freely available.

The Portuguese Group Ongoing, which published “Diario Econmico” in Portugal launched “Brasil Econômico” this weekend.  Ongoing is the private investment vehicle of the Rocha dos Santos family.  They have a focus on Telecom, Media, Real Estate and Financial Services with georgraphical focus on Portugal, Portuguese speaking countries, Africa and Spain.
The newspaper launched on a print run of 55.000, that is more than the 47.700 run of De Tijd in Belgium.  Smart move of the Rocha dos Santos people.

The online edition of Brasil Economico is excellent; both the interface and the content.   You can find a free demo of the October 9 and 10 editions here. The good news is that soon you’ll be able to sign-up online for a digital-only subscription on Brasil Economico.

Tags: brasil economico, ongoing, Rocha dos Santos