Petrobras to Unveil Offshore Oil, Gas Plan

Petrobras plans to announce oil and natural gas exploration and production plans for the Santos Basin today in Santos, Brazil, home to Latin America's largest port. The Santos Basin contains Brazil's largest proven gas reserves. Brazil gets about half of its natural gas, 24 million cubic meters a day, from Bolivia where unrest has threatened supplies and new taxes have raised costs. A shortage of natural gas in Brazil is already forcing companies to consider expansion abroad. Petrobras' $56 billion plan to almost double oil and gas output by 2010 includes provisions to boost Brazil's gas-fired electricity generation capacity. If Brazil fails to expand generation capacity, it faces economic slowdown and energy shortages as early as 2008, according to Bloomberg. (Source: Bloomberg)