After the car wash

A modest oil-price rise, and pro-investor reforms, should spark a recovery for Brazilian energy and Petrobras in 2017

For Brazil's oil industry, 2017 will be all about trying to escape the shadow of scandal and disappointment, and reclaiming some of the verve and momentum that drove the industry just a few years ago. How does it plan to do that? Under President Michel Temer, in office thanks to Dilma Rousseff's impeachment and then departure in September 2016, the country is pushing a wide range of pro-investment oil reforms that aim to reverse parts of the 2010 oil laws widely blamed for stifling investment and growth in the industry. The biggest step in this direction came in October 2016, when Congress overturned legislation that required state-controlled Petrobras to hold a minimum 30% operating stake i