Two Latin American countries in need of massive investments to boost drained state coffers have become locked in an escalating competition to attract Big Oil’s interest in their deep-water oil reserves.
Mexico and Brazil, the region’s two biggest economies, each want a slice from a shrinking pie as international drillers limit their investments during a time of depressed oil prices. Exploration spending by major explorers in 2015 dropped by half from a year earlier to $7 billion, according to a Wood Mackenzie Ltd. report in September that also predicted industry spending would continue to be curtailed through the end of the decade.
