Brazil’s oil industry regulator, the National Oil Agency (ANP), has gained ground in its effort to ensure that legal fallout from Chevron’s 3,700-barrel offshore oil spill here last November doesn’t hamper the country’s exploration and extraction of undersea crude. On Sept. 28, the chief justice of Brazil’s highest appeals tribunal outside the Supreme Court partially lifted a July 31 lower-court injunction that barred Chevron from resuming offshore oil production and prevented its drilling contractor, Transocean, from operating exploratory wells in Brazilian waters. Felix Fischer, chief justice of the Superior Justice Tribunal, modified a Sept. 10 ruling he had issued upholding that injunction. As a result of the new decision, Transocean is allowed to continue oil exploration for other energy-company clients outside the... [Log in to read more]
