(Bloomberg) -- Brazilian oil giant Petrobras agreed to pay 19.8 billion reais ($3.49 billion) in back taxes to the federal government at a time when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is seeking increased revenue to help balance the budget.Most Read from BloombergFlesh-Eating Bacteria That Can Kill in Two Days Spreads in JapanThese Are the World’s Most Expensive Cities for Expats in 2024Hedge Funds’ Secret Weapon to Fight the SEC Lives in TexasWhat to Know About the Deadly Flesh-Eating Bacteria
Complicated market conditions have prevented foreign airlines from launching local operations in Brazil, planemaker Airbus' head in the country told Reuters. In 2018, rules which had limited the size of the stake a foreign investor could hold in an airline were overturned in a bid to open up competition among carriers in Latin America's largest economy. Still, market share in Brazil is dominated by just three companies: Azul, Gol and LATAM, the latter the result of a merger in the 2010s between local airline TAM with Chile's LAN.
Petrobras (PBR) awards Solstad Offshore multi-year contracts worth $243 million for three vessels, enhancing operational efficiency in Brazil.