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Brazil is the third-largest
oil producer in Latin America and posesses the second largest oil
reserves in the region. Due to intensified oil exploration and
development, particularly in the offshore Campos basin north of Rio
de Janeiro, and falling domestic consumption, Brazilian oil imports
have dropped substantially since the 1970s. Even though Brazil
continues to import enough oil for its fiscal accounts and domestic
prices to be affected by changes in the international oil price, the
country's transition to becoming a net exporter in the next couple
years should alleviate the some
of these pressures.
The state-owned oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A (Petrobras) is
the largest company in Brazil. The company relinquished its
monopoly rights for oil exploration, refining, extraction and
distribution in July 1998, when the National Petroleum
Agency sold 92% of Brazil's oil basins and began opening the oil
sector to foreign investment. Petrobras Petrobras is
considered a leader in deep-water production technology and
continues to expand crude oil output largely thanks to the
production of offshore wells. The company aims to increase
production to 2 million barrels a day by 2005 and to increase proven
reserves to 13 billion barrels by 2005.
Brazil is one of the world's leading producers of hydroelectric
power, with a potential of 106,500 megawatts.
Hydroelectric power provides nearly 90% of the nation's electricity.
Federal utility Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. (Eletrobrás)
owns half of Brazil's installed capacity and key nationwide
transmission lines. Eletrobrás is responsible for coordinating
and supervising the expansion and operation of the electricity
system. The electricity distribution network is mostly
privatized, while generation and tranmission remain largely under
government control. Brazil's first commercial nuclear reactor,
Angra I, located near Rio de Janeiro, has been in operation for more
than a decade. In addition, Angra II is currently being
developed and plans for Angra III are in the works. The three
reactors would have combined capacity of 3,000 megawatts when
completed.
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