Brazil just held an oil and gas auction, and judging by the results, few companies are interested in developing the country’s oil and gas reserves right now. The state-owned oil company Petrobras, which is still reeling from the corruption scandal, did not participate in the auction. The unusual absence was due to the company’s massive pile of debt. Petrobras has limited resources to throw around these days, and it can ill-afford to take on new projects that would require large capital expenditures upfront, with payoff somewhere down the road. However, there was scant interest from international oil companies as well. Brazil’s oil auction failed to attract any oil majors, including Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Statoil, ExxonMobil, or BP, all of which either have a presence in Brazil or were registered to bid in auction. Out of the 266 onshore and offshore blocks that were put up for bid, only […]