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 Petrobras, the Brazilian government-controlled oil multinational, is among the world's top five energy sector leaders and is the second biggest company in Latin America, according to studies published by Goldman Sachs and by AméricaEconomía magazine.
Goldman Sachs report took into account return on capital, position in the industry, and environmental, social and corporate governance commitments. AméricaEconomía arrived to the conclusion following the financial information assessment of 500 leading companies in the region.
AméricaEconomía magazine ranks Petrobras behind Mexico's Pemex and ahead of Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA. The publication says Petrobras rose from third to second position following a 12% increase in sales last year, totaling US$ 96.3 billion. Petrobras Distribuidora ranked 7th.
According to the magazine if Petrobras maintains the average growth rate of the last ten years, 18.63%, in 2008, it will become the biggest company in sales in Latin America.
Goldman Sachs highlights Petrobras' strong growth prospects following discoveries in the pre-salt layer and forecasts one of the biggest cash flow growths in the sector in the upcoming decade. Petrobras financial return history is also one the industry's most impressive.
Regarding environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) commitment the Petrobras System ranks among the best, according to Goldman Sachs.
In the 2006 report, which assessed 26 companies, Petrobras had been listed among the top five leaders. This year, when the study analyzed a universe of 59 corporations, Petrobras and the BG Group were the only ones that remained in the top of the ranking. Other leaders are Schlumberger, Suncor, and Woodside.
Mercopress
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
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