Brazil’s epic “Car Wash” corruption investigation has taken down presidents and elite businessmen, and led to the largest corporate leniency deal ever signed. But graft allegations lodged by prosecutors last week against four of the world’s largest oil trading companies - Vitol SA, Trafigura, Glencore PLC and Mercuria Energy Group - have opened an explosive new phase in the long-running probe. Federal prosecutors allege the European multinationals and some smaller players collectively paid at least US$ 31 million in bribes over a six-year period to employees at Brazil’s state-led oil company Petrobras to sell them oil at sweetheart prices. They said the firms’ top brass had “total and unequivocal” knowledge that they were fleecing Petrobras and that the illicit activity may still be ongoing.

Dec 14, 2018 - Renewables Now

Brazil's power sector regulator Aneel approved on Tuesday the final two green projects with a combined capacity of 49 MW from the A-6 energy auction held on August 31, 2018. The approved schemes include the 29-MW Bela Vista small hydropower plant (SHP) and the 20-MW Rio Vermelho 3 biomass facility. Bela Vista is owned by a consortium formed by Copel Geracao e Transmissao SA, a subsidiary of Brazilian power utility Copel (BVMF:CPLE6), and local energy firm Foz do Chopim Energetica Ltda. The biomass project was secured by Glencane Bioenergia SA.

Dec 14, 2018 - Energyworld

France's EDF faces delay in Brazil hydroelectric dam over clearing trees. A consortium led by Electricite de France SA is ready to fill the reservoir of a hydroelectric dam built in Brazil's soy belt, but could be delayed by a year over removal of trees from the area to be flooded, the company and state officials said. Prosecutors are asking Mato Grosso's state environmental agency to deny the 402 megawatt HPP Sinop dam an operating license until all the vegetation is cleared, which could add US$ 103 million) to its R$ 2.9 billion price tag. If the trees are not removed, environmentalists say, the wood will rot in the water and create methane gas emissions that will contribute to global warming and pollute downstream waters.

Dec 14, 2018 - Dialogo Chino

Mired in a profound and lengthy economic crisis, the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which holds 90% of Brazil’s coal reserves, has opted to expand mining and create a coal gasification center. The initiative would enable the government, billions of dollars in debt, to create thousands of jobs but also risks locking-in into high-carbon energy infrastructure. As the state set out to find foreign investors for the project, it found China. “We know that China as a whole has been investing in the area of energy,” says Susana Kakuta, Rio Grande do Sul state secretary of mines and energy. “China uses technologies that are already well-established worldwide, so it is a big win-win, for them and for Brazil, especially for Rio Grande do Sul, in a new opportunity for coal from our state.”