Brazil's energy managed corporation Petrobras will extract its first crude oil from the potentially huge offshore Tupi field find, of late 2007, below the salt layer of the Santos basin next May, announced President Lula da Silva.
Brazil denied it was thinking on reprisals against Argentina because of the restrictive measures imposed to the access of Brazilian goods and also rejected it had threatened to take the case to the World Trade Organization.
The World Bank approved a 1.3 billion US dollars loan to Brazil for the First Programmatic Development Policy Loan for Sustainable Environmental Management, supporting Brazil’s ongoing efforts to improve its environmental management system.
Brazil’s Foreign Trade Secretary Welber Barral admitted publicly that Brasilia is considering taking its trade dispute claims with Argentina to the World Trade Organization. Insistent leaks to the press from “reliable sources” anticipated for days the growing trade rift between Mercosur two main partners.
Bilateral trade between Argentina and Brazil continued to deteriorate during the first two months of the year, according to official statistics released in Brasilia. Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade said that exports to Argentina in January-February were down to 1.33 billion US dollars which represents 46.5% less than Jan-Feb. 2008.
United States ExxonMobil has notified Brazilian regulatory agency Agencia Nacional de Petroleo, Gas Natural e Biocombustiveis (ANP) that it has found indications of hydrocarbons in block BM-S-22 off the Brazilian coast. The discovery was made in well 1-ESSO-3SPS.
Brazil’s government managed oil and gas corporation Petrobras announced its bio-fuels business plan for 2009/2013 which involves 2.4 billion US dollars to increase the production of bio-diesel and ethanol, most of which to be sourced in Brazil.
Car sales in Brazil and Germany soared in February helped by tax breaks and a cash bonus to scrap old vehicles. In Brazil Fiat SpA reported its third straight sales increase in February and in Germany sales rose by 22% compared with the same month last year, reaching their highest level for 10 years.
Brazil's trade surplus hit 1.7 billion US dollars in February, up from a 518 million dollar deficit in January and an 882 million dollars surplus in February 2008, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade reported this week.
Brazil's President Lula da Silva urged leading economies to complete stalled global trade talks warning that protectionism could tip the economic crisis into chaos.