Brazil's state-owned oil firm. A world leader in deep-water drilling, having developed the "pre-salt" fields off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, which lie at a depth of about 2km. These fields, discovered in 2006 during President Lula da Silva's first term, are set to make Brazil the world's fourth-largest oil producer by 2030, though they will begin to deplete soon after.
Petrobras refines most of Brazil's fuel. During periods of oil-price volatility it has tried to absorb additional costs rather than pass them on to consumers, acting as a buffer between global markets and domestic pump prices.
On October 20th 2025, after more than a decade of regulatory hesitation, IBAMA granted Petrobras a licence to explore for oil 160km off the coast of Oiapoque in the Equatorial Margin, near the mouth of the Amazon river. The main site Petrobras is eyeing, known as Block 59, is at a depth of about 3km—almost twice as deep as the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico. ExxonMobil, Chevron and the China National Petroleum Corporation also won rights to prospect in the area in June 2025.
Petrobras was at the centre of "Operation Car Wash", one of the biggest corruption cases ever uncovered, in which hundreds of politicians were found to have received bribes from construction firms and the state oil company in exchange for contracts. The scandal landed Lula da Silva in jail and fuelled the rise of Jair Bolsonaro.
You will stop at nothing to reach your objective, but only because your brakes are defective.