Brazil
hit by new blackout, infrastructure in spotlight
A massive blackout left
as many as 53 million Brazilians in the dark late Thursday and early
Friday, the latest in a string of energy shortages that have raised
questions about whether Brazil's infrastructure is keeping pace with
economic growth.
26
October, 2012
Officials
said a fire in a substation in the Amazon knocked out the whole
electricity grid of northeastern Brazil in the region's worst
blackout since 2001. The outage lasted up to four hours in some
places.
In
the city of Recife residents left without air conditioning and
ventilators complained they could not sleep due to the heat and
mosquitoes.
"There
was a total collapse of the northeastern grid," acting Energy
Minister Marcio Zimmermann said.
The
government has not yet established the causes of a series of recent
blackouts that have undermined confidence in Brazil's electrical
system, Zimmermann said. He called the second emergency meeting in
five weeks to discuss the problem.
The
power shortages have added to concerns that the South American
country will not be ready to host two major global sports events, the
World Cup soccer tournament in 2014 and the 2016 Olympic Games.
The
power outage, which affected 11 Brazilian states in the northern
regions of the country, follows two other blackouts in as many months
that affected millions of customers across the nation.
"We
are taking all the corrective and preventative measures ... to
minimize this type of occurrence, which is dramatic for all of us and
principally for consumers," Hermes Chipp, head of Brazil's
National Electric System Operator, told the Globo television network.
Brazil
went through a so-called "blackout crisis" in 2001 and 2002
as a drought limited the output of hydroelectric dams. In response,
the government forced electricity cuts in certain regions for hours
at a time, severely crimping economic growth.
While
Brazil has invested heavily in electricity generation since then, it
still has a long way to go, with the country planning to build as
many as 48 new hydroelectric plants by 2020 to keep up with the
energy demands of rapid economic growth.
Energy
policy has been at the forefront of government efforts to boost
sluggish growth in Latin America's largest economy. Last month
President Dilma Rousseff announced a major cut in electricity taxes
in a bid to help boost industry and address the so-called "Brazil
cost" - the mix of taxes, high interest rates, labor costs,
infrastructure bottlenecks, and other issues that have caused the
economy to become less competitive.
But
critics say lowering energy costs for consumers could discourage
private investment needed to increase Brazil's generating capacity.
They say electricity companies have not invested enough in generation
and transmission lines since they were privatized over a decade ago.
Brazil’s
Petrobras Posts Surprise Profit Decline on Costs
27
October, 2012
Petroleo
Brasileiro SA (PETR4), the world’s biggest oil producer in deep
waters, said third-quarter profit fell 12 percent, missing analysts’
forecasts, after fuel imports pushed up costs and crude output
slipped.
Net
income declined to 5.57 billion reais ($2.7 billion), or 43 centavos
a share, from 6.34 billion reais, or 49 centavos, a year earlier, the
Rio de Janeiro-based company said today in a statement. Per-share
profit excluding some items trailed the 58- centavo average of seven
analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Fuel
imports are curbing profit as imported gasoline and diesel prices
exceeded those in Brazil. In the quarter imported gasoline cost about
10 percent more than domestic fuel because the government, which
control’s Petrobras’ board, fixed prices to rein in inflation,
said Lucas Brendler, who helps manage about 6 billion reais at Banco
Geracao Futuro de Investimentos.
“You
are still importing at a price much higher than you are selling in
the downstream,” Brendler said in a telephone interview from Porto
Alegre, Brazil, before the report was released. “They have to solve
this problem.”....
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