Crisis-ridden Brazil plans to invite India and Iran to set up an oil refinery and a petrochemical plant in the Latin American country.
Officials close to the Michel Temer administration have confirmed the news, saying that Brazil has decided to strike an oil deal with India and Iran in an attempt to overcome the ongoing financial crisis. A senior Brazilian official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that President Temer was ready to offer a 5,000-acre site for the project on the country’s northern Atlantic coast (in Maranhao).
The official explained that the coastal area would be the ideal place for setting up the plant as it already has a deep water port for tankers. Moreover, location of the port will allow parties (to be involved in the project) to get easy access to the Pacific and Asia via the Panama Canal.
Federal lawmaker Jose Reinaldo Tavares has welcomed the Temer government’s decision to invite the two “friendly” nations to build oil refinery in Brazil, stressing that although his country has extensive oil reserves, it lacks refining capacity. He told reporters in Brasilia earlier this week that the proposed project would certainly help Brazil reduce its dependence on refined fuel imports. Tavares, who recently visited New Delhi and Tehran, further said that the Brazilian government would have to spend at least USD 2.5 billion to implement the project.
Meanwhile, Iranian Envoy to the South American country Mohammad Ali Ghanezadeh has said that Iranian oil officials, who visited the proposed site twice in recent past, advised the Hassan Rouhani government to accept Brazil’s proposal and set up the refinery in Maranhao.
Also, Engineers India Limited (EIL) – a New Delhi-based design and engineering company – has sent a delegation to Brasilia to discuss the project with the concerned Brazilian authorities. EIL will make a final decision on its participation in the project only after assessing the financing conditions.
Indian and Brazilian officials familiar with the talks are of the opinion that EIL may accept the invitation because the proposed project will help the Indian company capture the Latin American oil market in the coming years. As members of BRICS (an association of five major emerging national economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), India and Brazil enjoy close ties in different sectors.

Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das