Brazil

• Friday, December 3rd 2010 - 06:06 UTC

  Brazilian congress tightens grip on oil industry and new ‘strategic’ fields

  

  Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved this week new oil regulations that will increase government control over the energy industry and reduce competition against government managed Petrobras.

• Friday, December 3rd 2010 - 06:02 UTC

  Brazil’s Vale targets a million tons copper production annually in Chile by 2015

  

  Brazil’s Vale Doce, the world’s largest iron-ore producer, is aiming to boost copper output more than fivefold by 2015 as it seeks to diversify sales and catch up with rivals, announced top officials from the company during the inauguration of a project in Chile.

• Thursday, December 2nd 2010 - 19:44 UTC

  Opposition target plans for ‘AeroDilma’, 300 million USD Airbus 320

  

  The Brazilian opposition has criticized the purchase of a new presidential aircraft for president-elect Dilma Rousseff claiming it is excessively luxurious and expensive.

• Wednesday, December 1st 2010 - 22:14 UTC

  Lula da Silva’s 8 years marked by corruption and crime, says a Wikileak cable

  

  Brazilian president Lula da Silva concludes his eight years in office with a performance marked by open corruption “among his closest political allies”, with a “plague” of vote-buying in Congress and the ruling party, and without having given a reply to the issue of crime.

• Wednesday, December 1st 2010 - 08:03 UTC

  Brazil plans unmanned air surveillance along Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia borders

  

  Rio do Janeiro media has disclosed that the Brazilian government wants to use unmanned air vehicles, VANT, along the border areas of neighbouring countries, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay and Colombia.

• Wednesday, December 1st 2010 - 07:14 UTC

  Food industry in Brazil unable to fill 3.000 jobs with competent staff

  

  In a clear signal of the lack of qualified labour which is suffering the booming Brazilian economy, the powerful Marfrig meats’ processing group admitted it was having difficulties to fill 3.000 vacancies with competent personnel.

• Wednesday, December 1st 2010 - 03:35 UTC

  Brazil plans to cut subsidized long term loans to combat inflation

  

  Brazil plans to cut funding for its state development bank by 50% in 2011 in an effort to bring down the world’s second-highest inflation-adjusted interest rates. The reduction in loans the government provides to BNDES, as the bank is known, forms part of a plan to curb public spending, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said in an interview in Brasilia.

• Wednesday, December 1st 2010 - 03:30 UTC

  Brazil’s natural gas production record in October: 65 million cubic metres per day

  

  Brazil's natural gas output reached a record 65 million cubic meters a day in October, up 9.3% from the same month in 2009, Brazil's National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, said Tuesday. The gas output was also 1.64% higher than in September, ANP said.

• Tuesday, November 30th 2010 - 01:25 UTC

  New Brazilian government ratifies Lula da Silva’s regional foreign policy

  

  Brazilian president-elect Dilma Rousseff has confirmed President Lula da Silva’s international affairs special advisor Marco Aurelio García in his post, another clear signal that the incoming administration wants to continue with the “good neighbour” policy towards Latinamerica and such organizations as Mercosur and Unasur.

• Monday, November 29th 2010 - 22:31 UTC

  Petrobras confirms major oil find onshore in the Amazon region

  

  Brazilian government controlled oil and gas corporation Petrobras announced the discovery of a new crude deposit in the Amazon region, where the energy company already is developing large natural gas reserves.