Hi Anjo,I posted this previously but just in case you missed...

Hi Anjo,

I posted this previously but just in case you missed it,here it is again.

From the Austrade website regarding trading opportunities in brazil ,updated may 2009.


"Trends and opportunities
The market

The National Petroleum Agency (ANP) was recently created to regulate the privatisation of the oil and gas sector. The ANP is responsible for issuing exploration and production licenses and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations.

Since then there have been 10 rounds of bids to select companies to exploit petroleum fields previously controlled by

... Petrobras (the oil and gas state company monopoly). ...

However, in spite of the sectors privatisation, Petrobras remains the dominant player, holding important positions in up, mid, and downstream activities. As such, foreign-operated oil projects are still quite rare in Brazil. Royal Dutch Shell was the first foreign operator of crude oil production in the country, operating a single, relatively small field in the Campos Basin. In mid-2007, Devon brought its Polvo field on-stream, representing the first oil project without any Petrobras participation.

Remember that Austrade is an Australian Federal Goverment trade organisation closely linked to DFAT and FIRB.

Someone in Austrade certainly are of the opinion that PERTROBRAS is not "Indepenedent" in the context of Australian trade officialdom.

So do not worry about it ..who cares if it not them..there are others of note.

Petrobras were certainly not worried about confidentiality agreements when they were publically quoted as saying they were interested in doing a deal with East Timor over their fields earlier last year..so why would they have been worried about letting the public know about an involvement with MEO in early 2009.Maybe MEO has an issue?

You will know more on Wednesday at the latest.

cheers,

HR