There are New Year best wishes -- then there is wishful thinking.
As the air falls out of crude oil prices and 2009 gets forecast by many economists as one of deep recession, you can almost hear the fingers-crossed, wishful thinking from Brazil's Petrobras in their electronic holiday greeting card sent round the world -- as if their PR crew had been goaded into keeping things upbeat. "Happy new era, with good news," said Petrobras's English-language subject line.
"¡Feliz nueva era, con buenas noticias!" read the hale and hearty Spanish-language greeting.
Attached were pictures including those of a drilling platform, a curvaceous woman that looked to be surfing, a carnavalesque-dressed musician resembling Brazilian pop icon Milton Nascimento in mid-jump, and Petrobras CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli flanked by Petrobras officials. "Season's greetings...may the upcoming year be filled with good news for all of us," the electronic card said.
Citing market volatility, Petrobras, which had planned to release details of its 2009-2013 spending plans earlier this month, delayed the revision of its strategic plans until at least January. The company's new strategic plan has already been delayed several times and was first slated to be announced in September.
Petrobras' long-term spending plan has been widely anticipated as observers await detail on how the company plans to fund offshore subsalt development of up to 14 billion barrels of oil equivalent discovered in 2007 and 2008.
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