A long-delayed plan to capitalize and privatize Brazil’s Eletrobras will move forward this year, Privatization Secretary Salim Mattar said amid concerns that delays in the sale of the power utility may force the government to freeze part of its budget. Eletrobras will be capitalized in 2020,” Mattar said in an interview at Bloomberg’s São Paulo office. “It’s irresponsible to say that Congress won’t approve the bill that allows the privatization this year.”

Jan 24, 2020 - Business Day

Brazil, which became a net oil exporter in 2019, wants to expand its footprint in global energy markets without joining the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). The South American nation expects to be among the top-five energy exporters by 2030, and is tapping private investment to boost output, according to energy and mines minister Bento Albuquerque. It is also working on making rules more favourable for investors in upcoming auctions for oil and natural gas licences. “The idea is just to increase our production and to participate more in the international oil and gas market,” he said in an interview in New Delhi. “But this is not a plan for Brazil to join Opec or any other association or group of oil and gas producers. We don’t want restrictions, we want to increase our production.”

Jan 24, 2020 - Power Technology

French multinational electric utility company ENGIE has acquired a 30-year greenfield concession project in Brazil through a tender process launched by Sterlite. The project includes construction, operation and maintenance of an electric power transmission line, covering 1,800 km, and a new substation, as well as the expansion of three additional substations located in northern Brazil. The project will require an investment of US$ 828m). ENGIE CEO Isabelle Kocher said: “This transaction follows the acquisition in Brazil of the TAG gas transmission network, which represents 4,500km of gas pipelines or 47% of the country’s total gas infrastructure.”

Jan 24, 2020 - Financial Times

As concerns about climate change soared last year, the boss of Brazil’s biggest company delivered a message to try to assuage anxieties. Roberto Castello Branco, the president of oil company Petrobras, promised to increase efforts to curb emissions, saying decarbonisation was “one of our priorities.” The positive message, however, masks an inconvenient truth: in contrast with many of its global peers, Petrobras has made scant effort to diversify into green energy.