Transparency Snapshot
Overall, Brazil has good levels of revenue and expenditure transparency, driven by two main factors: its legislation for disclosure of public data on government web pages, and the National Oil Company's participation in the stock exchange. In fact, Brazil is the highest-ranking country in the Revenue Watch Index, above Norway and Chile. Although Brazil has not committed to implementing or supporting the Extractive Industries transparency Initiative (EITI), its state-owned oil company has had some participation in the international EITI process since 2005.
President Dilma Rouseff is a member of the PT (Worker's Party), the party of former President Luiz Inacio "Lula" Da Silva, with whom she worked closely during his administration. In 1990 Rouseff was appointed Secretary of Energy and in 2002 Lula Da Silva chose her as Minister of Energy. During her management of the ministry, she was adamant on respecting contracts made by the previous administration, pushed for policies to ensure that state-owned oil company Petrobras' platforms had a minimum level of local content and for the "Luz para Todos" program to universalize access to electricity.
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Extractive Industries
Brazil is the ninth-largest oil producer in the world and the second largest in Latin America, behind Mexico. The country's annual oil production reached 2.4 million barrels a day in 2008, a 7 percent increase from the previous year. Oil production has grown at an average rate of 6.9 percent since 2005.
Proven oil reserves were 2.85 million barrels a day in 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), but this could increase significantly as exploration activities continue. Though Brazil achieved energy self-sufficiency in 2006, discoveries in 2007 and 2008 at the El Tupi (now "Lula"), Sugar Loaf and Júpiter deposits could help to turn the nation into an oil giant. All these deposits are located offshore, between the states of Espíritu Santo and Santa Catalina, in a stratum under the salt layer, at 7,000 meters deep.
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