Brazil oil boomtown draws splendor, misery

Jose Costa moved to Brazil’s oil boomtown of Macae two years ago hoping to find a job on a sparkling offshore rig but settled instead for work as a landlocked janitor and a shack as a home.

Just a stone’s throw away from new plush beach hotels and expensive glass-and-concrete apartment blocks — the signs of the new oil wealth — teeming shantytowns spread out on the outskirts, representing the dark side of the oil boom.
“Thousands of people come here like me, just hopes and no money. Renting a flat is not an option, it’s more expensive than in Rio de Janeiro,” said Costa, a 42-year-old from Ceara state in the poor northeast who brought his wife with him to Macae, some 112 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro.

From Dubai in the Middle East to Maracaibo in Venezuela, oil industry booms have brought luxury downtown, while the numbers of indigent mushroom in worker camps and slums in the suburbs.

But Macae authorities hope the city’s still relatively small size will allow them to curtail the slums’ growth and follow a more successful example of a European oil-boom city.

Macae started growing after state-run oil company Petrobras discovered crude off its coast 30 years ago. Foreign oil firms arrived about 10 years ago, bringing about the real boom. They occupy a whole new district of offices and warehouses.

Hotel capacity in the city increased 10 fold in the last decade as global chains like Sheraton and Best Western set up shop to host oil executives and engineers. The construction industry also prospered, but slums sprouted up even faster.

Reuters