The role of international oil companies in the creation of new centers of world oil production (on the example of Brazil)

Emergence of Brazil as a large oil exporter in the last years has become a significant development in the world oil market. The article focuses on the role played by foreign capital in development of the Brazil oil sector in the long historical perspective. The analysis led to the following conclusions. First, every time when Brazilian government was opened the oil industry for foreign investment, oil production went up with some time lag. Second, opening of the oil sector to foreign competition positively impacts the national oil company Petrobras, which plays a central role in the realization of the Brazilian government oil policy. Access to foreign investment and technology as well as competitive pressure increases the efficiency of the national oil company. Third, for decades terms of doing business for foreign companies in the Brazilian oil sector periodically changed depending on the situation in national economy. During periods of high economic dynamism Brazil introduced restrictions on activities of foreign oil companies, while with the deterioration of economic situation and aggravation in macroeconomic imbalances the government on the contrary opted for liberalization of foreign capital activity in oil production. It is concluded that in the last five – seven years the involvement of international vertically integrated oil companies in the Brazilian oil sector reached such a scale that any new attempt to complicate and impair business climate for foreign investors could result in not only economic but also political collusions.

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