This is the first book in English about Brazil's largest firm, Petroleo Brasileiro, S.A., PETROBRAS, the state-owned monopoly oil firm. The work provides a history and analysis of PETROBRAS' organization, administration, operations, and efficiency. It analyzes its labor relations; the development of its suppliers of capital goods and research; and its impact on the economy and environment in Brazil. The study compares and contrasts PETROBRAS to the state-owned oil firms of Mexico and Venezuela, including current information regarding their organization. And it examines the trend toward reorganization and privatization as it has affected PETROBRAS and similar state-owned monopolies.

This study completes Laura Randall's examination of the oil producers of Latin America, begun with The Political Economy of Venezuelan Oil and followed by The Political Economy of Mexican Oil. It will be of interest to scholars and industry experts in energy economics and Latin American studies.