After the car wash
A modest oil-price rise, and pro-investor reforms, should spark a recovery for Brazilian energy and Petrobras in 2017
For Brazil's oil industry, 2017 will be all about trying to escape the shadow of scandal and disappointment, and reclaiming some of the verve and momentum that drove the industry just a few years ago. How does it plan to do that? Under President Michel Temer, in office thanks to Dilma Rousseff's impeachment and then departure in September 2016, the country is pushing a wide range of pro-investment oil reforms that aim to reverse parts of the 2010 oil laws widely blamed for stifling investment and growth in the industry. The biggest step in this direction came in October 2016, when Congress overturned legislation that required state-controlled Petrobras to hold a minimum 30% operating stake i
Also in this section
4 March 2026
The US president has repeatedly promised to lower gasoline prices, but this ambition conflicts with his parallel aim to increase drilling and could be upended by his war against Iran
4 March 2026
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed following US-Israel strikes and Iran’s retaliatory escalation, Fujairah has become the region’s critical pressure release valve—and is now under serious threat
3 March 2026
The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in US–Israeli strikes marks the most serious escalation in the region in decades and a bigger potential threat to the oil market than the start of the Russia-Ukraine crisis
2 March 2026
A potential blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following the escalating US-Iran conflict risks disrupting Qatari LNG exports that underpin global gas markets, exposing Asia and other markets to sharp price spikes, cargo shortages and renewed reliance on dirtier fuels
