Brazil Senate May Vote to Cut Petrobras Subsalt Preference
Brazil's Senate may soon vote on a bill ending state-led oil company Petrobras' obligation to run all new development and pay at least 30 percent of the costs of all new offshore development in the Subsalt Polygon oil region, Renan Calheiros, the Senate's president, said on Tuesday.
The vote, sponsored by opposition Senator Jose Serra, could happen as early as Wednesday, Calheiros said.
Part of a 2010 change to Brazil's oil laws, the subsalt operational and financial requirements for Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, have become too big for the financially strapped company, limiting development of giant oil and natural resources trapped far beneath the seabed by a layer of salt.
(Reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello; Writing by Jeb Blount; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
