BRASIL : Problems At Petrobras...Test Investors' Patience.

      This newsblog's editor has long suffered an unrequited love of Brasil...and a fascination about Petrobras...its state run oil giant.
      But...record spending from deep water extraction challenges...and slowing production... have only added to PBR's growing record debt...upsetting many investors...and 'testing their patience.'
     Petrobras added 26% to its total debt in 2012....but delivered its first production decline since 2004...at only 1.98 million bpb.

     Since Q4, 2010...PBR has lost 36% of its ADR value on the USA stock market.
     And...CEO Maria das Gracas Foster warned that 2013 will 'be a more difficult year than 2012.'
     Still...analysts observe that Petrobras sits on very promising geology...even if a recent fuel price increase was not enough to match world prices.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-06/petrobras-record-spend-defies-ballooning-debt-corporate-brazil.html