Equinor Eyes Brazil Natural Gas Infrastructure
Norway's Equinor ASA is scouting locations on Brazil's coast to install new natural gas infrastructure, the company's Brazil chief said, as the firm's gas-heavy offshore fields come on-line in the coming years.Natural gas is considered both a promising opportunity and a vexing problem in Brazil. The Latin American oil powerhouse is rapidly developing a prolific oil area off the nation's southeastern coast known as the pre-salt.Many of the region's assets have significant amounts of natural gas, but consumption is low among Brazilians and the nation has few pipelines and terminals to facilitate exports.
Attempted Oil Theft Leads to Spill
At least 60,000 liters (377 barrels) of oil spilled into Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay and a nearby river over the weekend after an attempted robbery on a pipeline, Petroleo Brasileiro SA's Transpetro unit said, highlighting the dangers of Brazil's thriving trade in stolen oil."It was a leak of significant proportions, with an impact on the mangroves," said Maurício Muniz, an analyst at the Instituto Chico Mendes, which is associated with Brazil's environment ministry.Transpetro said in a statement the oil had spilled into the Estrela River, which feeds the Guanabara Bay.
Fallen Brazilian Tycoon Batista Faces the Law
A year after the epic collapse of his industrial empire, Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's financial and legal troubles appear far from over. Once worth more than $30 billion and listed as the world's eighth-richest man by Forbes Magazine, Batista says his debts now exceed his assets by $1 billion and the value of his remaining stakes in the oil, shipbuilding, mining and transportation companies he founded continues to shrink. Batista also faces criminal and regulatory investigations into suspected insider trading and fraud. On Monday, a judge ordered Batista, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, to testify on Nov.
ISS Awarded Another Brazil Offshore Project
Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) announced another nomination to provide support services to an offshore pipelaying project at Rota Cabiunas in the Santos Basin Pre-Salt region, Brazil. Following a number of recent offshore agency logistics successes, ISS has now been appointed by Van Oord, the leading international marine contractor, to provide a range of support solutions to the Cabiunas project, located approximately 300 kilometres off the coast of the State of São Paulo in the Santos Basin. ISS’ support services will include the preparation of STV Finesse for the arrival and load-out operation of the pipelayer vessel…
