Weekly Report - 12 January 2012 (WR-12-02)

BRAZIL | Black gold. Brazil’s vast deepwater oil reserves are its biggest bet for the future. The state oil company Petrobras intends to invest over US$1.0trn to reach a targeted oil production level of 6.0m barrels/day by 2020. According to the national petroleum agency (ANP), Brazil’s total hydrocarbons output hit a record 2.615m b/d of oil equivalent in November 2011. Oil output on its own was 2.188m b/d. Venezuela’s oil output is put at about 2.9m b/d and it aims to produce 4.0m b/d by 2016.
CHILE | Exports surge to record level. Chile’s exports closed at a record level in 2011 of US$ 80.59bn, up 13.5% on the previous year. Imports, however, climbed faster still to reach US$ 69.97bn, up 26.8% on the previous year, driven by domestic demand and investment. As a result Chile’s trade surplus fell from US$ 15.86bn in 2010 to US$ 10.62bn last year. The central bank is predicting that the trade surplus will shrink to just US$ 4.8bn in 2012 with export values down as copper prices fall on the poor global economic outlook. The trade surplus in December, for instance, was just US$ 393m as exports fell by 17.3% to US$ 6.31bn and imports grew by 14.3% to US$ 5.92bn.