Brazil's pre-salt promise
Brazil's offshore is making big strides on costs—crucial in the post-shale landscape
It's been a rough period for Brazil's oil sector. The Lava Jato scandal, centred around a massive corruption scheme in the oil industry, has plunged the nation deep into a political crisis now more than three years old. The plunging oil price exposed state oil company Petrobras's massive debts and fragile financial foundation, forcing it to embrace deep austerity and slow its offshore developments. Hovering over these issues, however, has been another question: can Brazil's deep-water pre-salt fields still compete in an era of cheap oil supply? The emergence of the US shale industry, and recent evidence that the major Permian and Eagle Ford plays can grow at $50 a barrel, has pushed Brazil's
Also in this section
11 March 2025
Direct air capture is still in its infancy, but organisations are seeking to leverage global collaborations and AI to discover new materials, with an aim of scaling up the technology and cutting costs
11 March 2025
Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria and Kazakhstan all add significant volumes as core OPEC-9 feels the strain of compliance
11 March 2025
Investor certainty key to diversifying country’s oil and gas exports amid fresh talk of improving infrastructure to boost energy security
10 March 2025
Oil sands will be complemented by conventional and shale output growth and supply opportunities improved by the Trans Mountain Pipeline, but the tariff threat remains
