Rio’s off-shore oil

Already estimated to contain 50bn barrels, and with much of the area still to be fully explored, the fields contain the world’s largest known offshore oil deposits. In one step, Brazil could jump up the world rankings of national oil reserves and production, from 15th to fifth…

“This could be the largest private sector investment programme in the history of mankind – more than actually putting a man on the moon,” says Pedro Cordeiro of the Bain & Company consultancy in São Paulo. He estimates the total investment could be roughly equivalent to the annual gross domestic product of Australia. “Not counting new concessions, you will have $1,000bn of investment over the next 10 years. It’s huge.”

The article is interesting throughout.  Ken Rogoff put it well: ““Brazil has everything that China doesn’t…”

For the pointer I thank Rohan Varavadekar, who also refers me to this article on hospital competition through billboards.