Justin Jacobs, RIO DE JANEIRO: At the mouth of Rio de Janeiro's iconic Guanabara Bay, a queue of ships waiting to berth at the city's main port shows the strain rapid economic growth in recent years has putting on Brazil's infrastructure. The port, one of Brazil's busiest, is vital to keeping this bustling city running. It is also an important staging ground for companies developing offshore oil and gas projects in the nearby Campos and Santos basins.
For the oil and gas industry, clogged ports here and elsewhere threaten to slow development activity, adding another potential bottleneck to operations as companies try to develop billions of barrels oil discovered offshore Brazil.
The government has promised to support the expansion and modernisation of Brazil's port infrastructure. In December last year, president Dilma Rousseff launched the Logistics Programme for Ports, a major investment and reform plan for the port...