Brazil's Military Poised to Amass Power After Three-Decade Wait. Gen. Antonio Hamilton Mourao would be Brazil’s vice president. Gen. Augusto Heleno would be defense minister. And Gen. Oswald Ferreira is likely to run a new infrastructure ministry. If ex-Army Captain Jair Bolsonaro wins the runoff vote against the Workers’ Party’s Fernando Haddad on Oct. 28, he has promised to name as many as five generals to his cabinet, giving the security forces their biggest public role in decades. In addition, at least 38 former soldiers, police officers and firefighters rode the coattails of the former paratrooper to win election to congress Oct. 7. In 2014, only 14 veterans won.

Oct 15, 2018 - DevDiscourse

Brazilian far-right presidential front-runner Jair Bolsonaro’s top economic adviser said he favors selling off some of the power generation assets of utility company Eletrobras, raising new contradictions in the candidate's policy team. Shares of the company soared following the clear lead Bolsonaro took in Sunday's first-round vote, but then tumbled 13% on Wednesday when Bolsonaro said he would privatize transmission and distribution units but not generation. He previously promised to privatize some state-controlled companies. But in comments to reporters late on Friday, his economic guru Paulo Guedes gave a contradictory view, favoring selling Eletrobras generation rather than transmission assets.

Oct 15, 2018 - Renewables Now

Italy's Sebigas has been awarded a contract by Raizen-Geo to build a 17.5-MW biogas plant in Brazil. The facility, which according to Sebigas will be the largest biogas plant in the Americas, will be located in the city of Guariba in the state of Sao Paulo. It will be constructed near the second largest ethanol and sugar mill of Raizen, a company which is a joint venture between Brazil's Cosan SA Industria e Comercio and Royal Dutch Shell Plc. The plant will use vinasse, a by-product from ethanol production, to make biogas that will then be used to produce electricity, providing 17.5 MW of generation to the national grid.

Oct 15, 2018 - Seeking Alpha

France's Engie and Canadian pension fund Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec plan to offer as much as US$ 9B for Petrobras’s natural gas pipeline network, potentially US$ 1B more than their initial bid. Engie, whose initial US$ 8B bid including debt was the highest, is planning to raise its offer to ensure it prevails at a time when cheap credit is available to help finance the acquisition, according to the report. The 2,800-mile Transportadora Associada de Gas pipeline network spans 10 states in northeastern Brazil, and PBR wants to sell it as part of a wider push to sell US$ 21B in assets to reduce its debt; if completed, it would be the company’s biggest divestment ever.