
Brazil’s Petrobras shares surged in Wednesday trading after the company surprised investors with a 5% increase in domestic diesel wholesale prices. The latest increase helps offset investor disappointment with January's lower-than-expected jump in gasoline and diesel prices, which had pushed Petrobras's shares to a seven-year low in recent sessions.

Brazil’s government managed oil and gas corporation Petrobras posted a net benefit of 21.182 billion Reais (approx 10.6bn dollars) in 2012, which is 36% below 2011, reported the company in a filing, but in the fourth quarter profits totalled 7.747bn Reais (approx 3.9bn dollars) 53% higher than in the same period in 2011.

After months of delays, the P-63 floating production storage and offloading unit (FPSO) has made its temporary home in Brazil's Port of Rio Grande, Petrobras and the Quip consortium said on Thursday.

British Gas started oil production at the Sapinhoa field off Brazil, one of the “Big Five” discoveries in the pre-salt Santos Basin. Along with Petrobras and Repsol, BG plans to pump an initial 25.000 barrels a day from the deposit in BM-S-9 Block, the England-based producer said in a statement.

North-east Brazil is suffering its worst drought in decades, threatening hydro-power supplies in an area prone to blackouts and potentially slowing economic growth in one of the country's emerging agricultural frontiers.

Brazil faces record trade deficits in petroleum products in 2012 and 2013 as a result of government fuel-price controls, problems with its refining system and rising consumer demand, the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported last weekend.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is planning to visit Mexico in early 2013 taking advantage of the good chemistry with the new leader Enrique Peña Nieto, and with the purpose of re-launching the deteriorated relations between the two main economies of Latinamerica.

Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras is putting its Argentine assets up for sale and will start accepting bids from interested buyers as early as this week, Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion reported Friday.

Municipal elections are over and the Brazilian government had a good performance at the polls having recovered among others the City of Sao Paulo, but contrary to investors’ expectations, the country’s oil and gas corporation Petrobras will not be hiking gasoline prices in the immediate future.

The Brazilian government announced on Monday that it will invest 162 million Reais (81 million dollars) in the purchase of a high-tech oceanography research vessel.