Brazil Discovers Huge Oil Deposit

Brazil may be striking a gold mine or more precisely a black gold mine as its' discovery on the Maranhao site may have oil deposits as huge as the Campos Basin, which produces 85 percent of the Brazil's oil.

The basin was discovered by Petroleo Brasileiro SA and Devon Energy Corporation 160 kilometers off the coast of Sao Luis which this year alone has produced an average of 1.65 million barrels per day this year.

Maranhao state in northeast Brazil is famous for luring oil refining, steelmaking and pulp for export due to its five days closer to Europe proximity. With the stable output from Maranhao basin, Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras is planning to build a $20 billion premium-products refinery 30 kilometers from Sao Luis, for Europe and North America export by 2013.

Brazil Cosan Acquiring ExxonMobil

Brazilian energy giant - Cosan which produces Brazil's major ethanol is planning to acquire ExxonMobil’s operations in Brazil for $826m for a direct control of more than 1,500 fuel stations in Brazil.

The take-over will inherit $163m in debt from ExxonMobil and $35m in net credits specific for the fuel stations operation. However, ExxonMobil is still in charge of its major chemical plants and upstream oil and gas operations especially at offshore Santos Basin.

Analysts are looking at the strategic move as a favorable one since it lets Brazil Cosan to take charge of the fuel stations for distribution of its vast production of Brazil's ethanol.

Paulinia Polypropylene Plant by Braskem

After years of construction and planning, Brazil petrochemicals major Braskem is starting up a 350,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant at Paulinia in Sao Paulo state in the Brazil which had costed $420million. The feedstock for the plant is supplied by Brazil oil major Petrobras from the refineries in the Sao Paulo state.

The plant is expected to increase Braskem’s overall annual PP production capacity to 1.1million tonnes/year, a producer and market leader in South America.

Brazil Uses More Ethanol than Gasoline

Brazil, the world's largest ethanol producer from sugarcane consumes more ethanol than gasoline at the start of the South American winter as predicted by analysts. Ethanol demand in Brazil is especially high and it exceeded gasoline was in February 2008.

Brazillian ethanol consumption mainly goes to sales of flexible-fuel vehicles, which can burn either ethanol or gasoline which is the normal spec for somewhat 2.75 million automobiles in 2007 alone.

Brazil Using Standard Biodegradable Labels

Another environment steps taken by Brazil which is pushing for labelling of biodegradable plastic packaging according to world standards to ensure such characteristics touted to consumers in fact exist.

In the fast lane of becoming green and environmentally friendly, many producers are using labels to buy the customer perception towards green environment even when the products do not offer such.

Brazil’s official industrial standards board ABNT and the National Plastic Institute (INP) will be working with a 70-member multi-disciplinary committee for the guidelines for the label.

Petrochemical Outlook 2008: Latin America Growing in Polyethylene

2008 seems to be a growing time for Latin America Polyethylene (PE) industry with growth in 2008 is expected to come from Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela and Chile. This is amidst Brazil's new resolution to become the regional leader of petrochemicals.

Brazil will become the key player in the region with export of polyethylene into Argentina, where growth is very limited due to the political crisis with the victory of Cristina Kirchner.

Argentina's local polyethylene producer, Dow has been actively looking associations with O&G (oil and gas) companies for feedstock guarantee. Brazil will continue exporting its LDPE (low density polyethylene) into Argentina and with raw materials climbing up, revenues would hit Brazil.