????腐敗、鬧劇和完全缺乏競爭力可能打碎巴西成為石油出口大國的夢想。上周，巴西檢察官要求雪佛龍（Chevron）及其鉆井合作伙伴Transocean為在巴西沿海意外漏油約3,000桶支付110億美元的巨額罰款。雖然這樣的罰款額顯然過高，真正獲得支付的可能性也不大，但這引發(fā)了對在巴西開展業(yè)務是否有長期保障的疑慮。

????漏油似乎是海底石油鉆探和輸送過程中很難完全避免的現(xiàn)象。大規(guī)模漏油事故——比如去年英國石油（BP）在墨西哥灣漏油400萬桶——完全無法容忍。但如果在開采幾百萬桶的情況下每年漏油幾百桶是在是稀松平常的事情。

????但在巴西，有人認為這樣的漏油事件是“死罪”——特別是如果被告是一家外資石油公司的話。本月初，美國石油公司雪佛龍被巴西聯(lián)邦政府罰款5,000萬雷亞爾（2,800萬美元），原因是其距里約熱內(nèi)盧標志性海灘外75英里的近海鉆井平臺泄漏了約2,400-3,000桶石油。

????如果這一漏油事件發(fā)生在美國水域，雪佛龍可能只需支付上述罰款額的一半左右，而且前提是雪佛龍被認定存在嚴重疏忽。雪佛龍對巴西聯(lián)邦政府的處罰決定沒有發(fā)表異議，同意支付罰款，承擔事故的全部責任，并立即開始清理。巴西石油業(yè)發(fā)展快速，雪佛龍不想因此危及自己在這個市場地位。漏油口已被封堵，海面上也已看不到泄漏的原油。鑒于漏油量大小和洋流方向，泄漏原油絕無污染里約熱內(nèi)盧海灘的可能。

????但故事并未就此結束。這一漏油事件在里約州迅速開始政治化；里約州是巴西新興石油行業(yè)的中心，也是準國有企業(yè)——巴西國家石油公司（Petrobras）的所在地。里約州環(huán)境部長威脅將吊銷雪佛龍的經(jīng)營執(zhí)照，讓遠在美國休斯頓的、積極參與巴西石油行業(yè)建設的眾多外資石油公司也感到一陣陣寒意。就此，巴西聯(lián)邦政府私底下安慰石油業(yè)界，鉆井許可歸聯(lián)邦政府管，他們不必在意地方官員的叫囂。

????但如今，這些不滿已演變成了一項巨額民事訴訟。來自里約熱內(nèi)盧鄰近城市坎普斯的檢察官們上周三對雪佛龍和瑞士Transocean公司提起了訴訟，指控他們因嚴重疏忽造成了漏油事件，并索償200億雷亞爾（約110億美元）。檢察官們表示，高額的罰款是為了表明里約州高度重視環(huán)保問題。訴訟未提及雪佛龍在這一油田項目中的其他合作伙伴，包括一家日本金融公司和巴西國家石油公司，也沒有說明罰款將如何在雪佛龍和Transocean之間分配。

????Corruption, grandstanding and total incompetence may sink Brazil's dreams of becoming an oil exporting powerhouse. Prosecutors in the country last week slapped Chevron and drilling partner Transocean with an $11 billion fine for accidentally releasing around 3,000 barrels of oil off of Brazil's coast. While the fine is clearly excessive and unlikely to stick, it has raised questions regarding the long-term safety of doing business in Brazil.

????Oil spills seem to unfortunately be a fact of life when drilling and transporting oil from the ocean floor. Massive spills, like BP's disastrous four-million barrel belch in the Gulf of Mexico last year, though, are totally unacceptable. But the leaking of a few hundred barrels of oil per year seems to be par for the course when extracting millions.

????In Brazil, though, one would think that such minute spills were a capital offense -- especially if the offender was a foreign oil company. US-based Chevron (CVX) was fined 50 million reals ($28 million) by Brazil's federal government earlier this month for leaking around 2,400 to 3,000 barrels from one of its offshore drilling platforms located 75-miles off the coast of Brazil's iconic beaches in Rio de Janeiro.

????The fine is around double what Chevron would have had to pay if the leak occurred in U.S. waters, and only if the company were convicted of gross negligence in relation to the spill. Instead of fighting the fine, Chevron agreed to pay, accepted total responsibility for the accident and quickly began clean up. It did not want to jeopardize its place in Brazil's fast-growing oil industry. The leak has since been plugged and has disappeared from the ocean surface. There was never any risk of oil washing up on the beaches in Rio given the size of the spill and the direction of the ocean currents.

????But that was not the end of the story. The oil spill quickly became politicized in the state of Rio de Janeiro, home of Brazil's burgeoning oil industry and the quasi-state-controlled oil giant Petrobras. The environmental secretary of Rio threatened to revoke Chevron's operating license over the spill, sending shivers all the way up to Houston, home to the dozens of foreign oil companies that feed Brazil's oil engine. The federal government in Brasilia quietly reassured the oil community that drilling permits were under federal jurisdiction and that they should simply ignore the howls of discontent from local officials.

????But now those howls have turned into a stinging civil lawsuit. Prosecutors from Campos, a city near Rio de Janeiro, filed suit last Wednesday against Chevron and Transocean (RIG) for gross negligence in connection with the oil spill. They announced they were seeking 20 billion reals or around $11 billion in compensation for the spill. The fine was high, prosecutors say, in order to send a message that Rio was serious when it comes to environmental protection. The suit did not mention Chevron's other partners in the oil field, a Japanese financial company and Petrobras, and did not say how the fine would be divvied up between Chevron and Transocean.