RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP) announced on June 16th they are set to review the deal between UK oil giant British Petroleum (BP) and Devon Energy in light of the on-going clean up operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The ANP have said that the review is normal procedure, though it seems certain the decision was influenced by the prolonged environmental disaster and ensuing political conflict between the oil company and US government as regards their liability.

Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, photo by U.S. Coast Guard/Wikimedia Creative Commons License.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Rio now takes the title of most expensive city in the Americas for foreigners to live, according to a recent survey undertaken by British consultancy Employment Conditions Abroad (ECA).

Rio de Janeiro is now the most expensive city for expats in the Americas, photo by Jaylan Boyle.

The study comes with a caveat: it was undertaken and compiled before this year’s dramatic fall in the value of the Euro, meaning in reality those cities of the American continent will rank even higher on the list of the four hundred surveyed than where they currently appear.

Rio’s position as the most expensive city in the western hemisphere represents a sharp rise compared to last year’s study, mainly attributable to increased demand for Brazilian commodities and the steadily strengthening Real, meaning that the significant increase in the cost of living affects the entire country.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Rightly labeled the home of Brazilian football, the Maracanã stadium turned sixty years old on Wednesday, June 16th, and to commemorate the occasion the iconic venue is hosting a collection of photography and exhibits telling the Maracanã story, along with special lighting to celebrate Brazil’s participation in the World Cup 2010.

The Maracanã stadium is one of Rio's most important landmarks, photo by Arthur Boppré/Flickr Creative Commons License.

Although popularly known as Maracanã, the stadium’s official name is Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, after the journalist Mário Filho, who was one of the main champions of the stadium’s

RIO DE JANEIRO – The Brazilian Senate has approved the bill on the new capitalization plan for Petrobras, marking the beginning of an overhaul in Brazil’s oil industry regulations. Under the new plan, state-controlled energy giant Petrobras will issue new shares to pay for the oil rights through a total offer expected to be valued at between fifty and seventy-five billion dollars.

Câmara dos Deputados (Chamber of Deputies), the Lower House of Brazil's National Congress, during the plenary session on Petrobras capitalization, photo by José Cruz/ABr.

In order to be able to fund the development of the pre-salt fields discovered in recent years in the Santos Basin off the coast of Southeastern Brazil, Petrobras is relying on the vast cash reserves set to be generated by the share offer.