Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
- Note on currencies and other units of measurement
- Maps: Latin America in 1920, 1940, 1960 and 1981; showing importing countries, exporting countries and countries self-sufficient in oil
- Introduction: The politics of oil in twentieth-century Latin America
- Part I The world oil environment
- Part II The major expropriations
- Part III The state oil companies
- 17 Pemex in Mexican politics 1938–79
- 18 The development of Petrobrás: oil company to conglomerate?
- 19 ypf 1932–1979: public enterprise or bureaucracy?
- 20 Petroperú 1968–80: achievements and hard lessons
- 21 ypfb and the development of oil in Bolivia
- 22 Petrovén: the birth of a giant
- 23 State oil companies in Latin America
- 24 Concluding reflections
- Notes and bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
18 - The development of Petrobrás: oil company to conglomerate?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
- Note on currencies and other units of measurement
- Maps: Latin America in 1920, 1940, 1960 and 1981; showing importing countries, exporting countries and countries self-sufficient in oil
- Introduction: The politics of oil in twentieth-century Latin America
- Part I The world oil environment
- Part II The major expropriations
- Part III The state oil companies
- 17 Pemex in Mexican politics 1938–79
- 18 The development of Petrobrás: oil company to conglomerate?
- 19 ypf 1932–1979: public enterprise or bureaucracy?
- 20 Petroperú 1968–80: achievements and hard lessons
- 21 ypfb and the development of oil in Bolivia
- 22 Petrovén: the birth of a giant
- 23 State oil companies in Latin America
- 24 Concluding reflections
- Notes and bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
Summary
Petrobrás 1954–61: the enterprise matures
Petrobrás was not set up completely from scratch; by 1954 the CNP'S total investments amounted to some $165m. and a major refinery, with a capacity of 45,000 b/d, was under construction at Cubatão. These assets were then passed over to Petrobrás. Nevertheless, the agency was still small and inexperienced when compared with what it had been set to do, which was to produce and refine enough oil to make Brazil self-sufficient with only the limited help of two small privately owned refineries. The first President of Petrobrás, Juraci Magalhães, later recalled that ‘the state company began as a real “encampment”. Everybody installed himself where he could, and the desk which he [Juraci] began using had been bought from an engineer who worked in the same office block in which Petrobrás had been installed.’ Nevertheless, the agency began with many opportunities in the most important areas: those relating to the formation of financial, human and political capital. For the first seven years, these were generally used to advantage.
Looking back on the period 1954–60, W. J. Levy concluded that, while Petrobrás had certainly not faced serious financial problems, ‘it is clear that a major part of Petrobrás' profitability cannot be regarded simply as earnings from operations. Behind it is a deliberate policy of public support.’ It was not difficult to find evidence for this assertion.
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- Information
- Oil and Politics in Latin AmericaNationalist Movements and State Companies, pp. 368 - 400Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982