This book investigates the role of the National Petroleum Council (CNP) and especially of Petrobras in the construction and shaping of courses in Geosciences, as part of the historical process of the search for and exploration of oil, which began in Brazil in 1864 and ended in 1968 with the discovery of the first offshore well. The book explores the history of the discovery of oil in Brazil together with the historical development of oil research and geosciences in Brazil. It also elucidates significant events and developments which occurred between 1864 and 1968 such as the foundation of the Ouro Preto Mining School, the foundation of the CNP and Petrobras and other scientific societies and universities and their contributions to the formation and constitution of geosciences in Brazil. This book also discusses the massive investments by CNP and Petrobras in technical and scientific research for oil exploration in the Brazilian territory.This unique book appeals to scientists, students and professionals in geosciences, history and related fields.
This book is the third volume in the European Environmental Law Forum (EELF) book series. The EELF is a non-profit initiative of environmental law scholars and practitioners from across Europe aiming to support intellectual exchange on the development and implementation of international, European and national environmental law in Europe. One of the activities of the EELF is an annual conference. This book is comprised of fifteen contributions presented at the Third EELF Conference in Aix-en-Provence, hosted by the Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium, at Aix-Marseille University, September 2015. The central topic of the book is the effectiveness of environmental law. The impressive development in environmental law has not always been matched by corresponding improvements in environmental quality. The threats to our environment and, by extension, to our health have never been so numerous or serious. But paradoxically, the effectiveness of environmental law has been a long-neglected issue. This book offers a fruitful and stimulating dialogue between practitioners and academics, from varied countries and varied fields, combining empirical and theoretical approaches. The contributions go from classical-but still necessary-tools (control, criminal, administrative, civil sanctions, liability rules, strengthening of the regulatory structure, and the role of judges), to more innovative ones (public participation, effectiveness of instrument mixes, collaborative governance, hybrid governance, and private environmental enforcement). (Series: European Environmental Law Forum, Vol. 3) Subject: Environmental Law, European Law]
Oil and gas production is expected to increase over the coming decade, with the ANP projecting an output of 5.5 million bopd by 2027-2028. Furthermore, 44 offshore production systems are expected to come on line by 2030. Brazil has started to attract the attention of oil majors across the globe and will continue to be a regional investment hub for years to come. As such, the report covers the laws and regulations of the new administration that will shape the local investment environment. This third edition also delves into other attractive business opportunities in Brazil’s conventional offshore and onshore basins. Less than 30,000 wells have been drilled in the country’s oil and gas history, compared to almost double that in Argentina and more than 100 times that in the USA. The ANP recognises the need to incentivise E&P in areas the prolific Pre-Salt Polygon. Despite the progress being made in the development of Brazil’s oil and gas industry, challenges loom overhead. Environmental issues will come to the fore as some segments of society contest the new administration’s move to a more laisssez-faire market approach, particulary in areas near the Amazon rainforest. The government is under pressure to tackle these issues and push forward the industry’s development. Extensive in-depth analysis is supported by comprehensive maps, illustrations and graphs to create a market guide essential for players seeking to either expand their operations or enter the Brazilian oil and gas market.
This is a study about the growth of oil industry and its economic and political repercussions in Brazil. It combines an industrial analysis with an empirical assessment of the impact of oil royalties on municipal fiscal transparency in Brazil. This paper begins with an overview of the future of the oil industry and fleshes out what Brazil0́9s role in this future might be. I show that hydrocarbons will continue to be the main source of energy for the foreseeable future. Despite the negative issues associated with oil, such as its pollutant qualities and abundance in politically unstable countries, its versatile nature and features as a fuel discourage a switch to alternative energies, a very arduous endeavor under present technological constraints. Next, opposing views regarding the dominance of oil are presented. Some scientists defend that oil production has or is about to peak, while others claim that there is plenty of oil left in unconventional sources, such as tar sands, shale rocks, and offshore oil. This latter source is of particular interest to this study. In 2007, the Brazilian government announced the discovery of huge reserves offshore, reserves with the potential to multiply the country0́9s oil assets. Brazil emerges in the 21st century as an important supplier of oil, a fact celebrated by President Barack Obama in his first visit to the country, when he offered his willingness for the U.S. to be the main customer of such fuel. For most of its history, Brazil needed to import oil to supply its internal demand. Despite that, this country adopted policies that highly restricted foreign participation in this industry. I show how nationalism played a major role in shaping Brazil0́9s oil legislation from the 19300́9s until the mid-19900́9s, when a more liberal legal framework opened the domestic market for oil exploration. The liberal legislation successfully achieved an increase in production and reserves. Additionally, the mid-19900́9s legislation also raised the existing rate of oil royalties and created new taxes. The combination resulted in petroleum wealth appearing as a significant source of public revenue, especially at the local government level. Oil abundance, if not properly managed, can be harmful to economic development. This outcome is counterintuitive but supported by an empirical regularity in cross-country comparisons. In Chapter 2, I present the main arguments attempting to explain the so-called resource curse paradox, a theme extensively studied in development and political science literature. I show that while there is no inherent contradiction between resource abundance and development, there are indeed economic and political challenges. Economically, there is a need to avoid the loss of competitiveness in the non-resource sector of the economy, a phenomenon named Dutch Disease. The existence of oil wealth can also pose a threat to development through political mechanisms. It stimulates rent-seeking behavior and reckless fiscal spending, and it makes reform harder to accomplish. Chapter 2 also contains a brief analysis of the experiences of Norway, Venezuela, and Mexico in managing oil resources. In Chapter 3, I assess the impact of oil money transfers to municipalities in their compliance with the transparency requirements of the Fiscal Responsibility Law. In 2000, the Brazilian government adopted a law that requires, among other things, that every municipality submit its fiscal data to the central government. If a municipality declines to provide the data, it is penalized with refusal of voluntary transfers from the Union and contracting credit operation. I analyze the pattern of missing information using logit models with fixed effects and pooled data, for 5,561 municipalities in a ten year period (2000 to 2009). The results compellingly illustrate that being an oil recipient increases the probability of breaking the law by up to 16 percentage points. The model also indicates that structures of checks and balances, like a high voter turnout, encourage more transparent behavior. Consistent with the literature, the models likewise exhibit that the more a municipality is financed by transfers of money, the less the municipality is accountable. Chapter 4 concludes by pointing to the importance of the findings, particularly when oil revenues, with the recent offshore discoveries, are becoming a major source of public money to all governmental structures in Brazil.
