Cracks appear in Brazil
As Brazil competes for international investment it is opening up its trove of pre-salt reserves to foreign majors
For years, international oil companies have come through Brazil with a common item at the top of their wish list: more access to the country's vast deep-water pre-salt reserves. In October, they finally got what they wanted as Brazil's new president Michel Temer pushed through several pro-investor reforms. After a long and contentious debate, Brazilian lawmakers overturned a piece of 2010 legislation that required state-controlled Petrobras to hold at least an operating 30% stake in all of the country's pre-salt oil projects. The rule had choked off foreign investment in the country's largest oilfields as companies weren't willing to pump billions of dollars into uncertain projects they didn
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