International oil companies are reaching out to Brazil after it opened its most promising offshore region to increased competition, a move welcomed by Petrobras Chief Executive Officer Pedro Parente as he seeks partners to spread investment costs. Producers rushed to contact Houston-based Brazilian officials last week after Congress removed a requirement that Petrobras control operations at all new projects in an area known as the pre-salt, Parente said. It’s the most investor-friendly change in regulation since the 1997 oil law that ended the company’s monopoly in Brazil. “Our foreign ministry representation unit in Houston, in the very following day, received seven manifestations of interest of big companies,” Parente said at Bloomberg’s offices in New York City. The policy shift comes as the state-controlled producer is selling assets to […]