A Estratégia do Pré-Sal como Política de Desenvolvimento Nacional (The Pre-Salt Strategy as a Policy of National Development)

In November of 2007, Brazilian oil and gas giant Petrobras announced the discovery of enormous oil and gas reserves in the so-called pre-salt layer, located in deep waters off the coast of Brazil. In the wake of this announcement, and on the back of measures that had already been gradually introduced from 2003 onwards, the Brazilian government set about putting together and consolidating a strategy aimed at exploiting and developing these pre-salt reserves. This would imply not only an instrumental change in the regulation governing the oil and gas sector at the time but also, as this article will show, involve a much broader change, one which involved the pre-salt taking a leading role in the economic-social development strategy currently being pursued. This article will then discuss the path taken by Brazil and the strategy of exploiting these pre-salt oil and gas reserves from the perspective of a policy aimed at economic and social development. KEYWORDS: National economic development; Pre-salt; Strategy; Public Policy.