Brazil's energy potential: a governance challenge

Except good quality anthracite, Brazil possesses all possible energy resources in large quantities: large natural gas and oil reserves, high hydroelectric capacities, but also high wind and solar capacities. Despite this potential, Brazil is often facing large electric power failures. After a first part which proposes an overview of characteristics of the hydrocarbon sector (overview of oil discoveries, evocation of the Petrobras monopoly, comments about shortfall in natural gas production, and about ethanol as adjustment variable in transports but insufficient to solve the external dependency of Brazil for oil-based products), the author tries to identify and understand the political management of this sector by the Workers Party since 2003 (law, local content and limits of oil at the service of the Brazilian economy, Petrobras as a state within the state, issues related to corruption). The author then focuses on electricity, tries to understand why, despite this high potential and constant investment in this sector, the country is still facing these power failures. In this respect, he notably comments the status and condition of electricity production, the reform of electricity pricing, and the lack of statistics on hydroelectricity, and outlines that improvements are long coming. He also highlights the role of politics in the management of this sector