Brazil Senate Approves Renewal of ANP Director Chambriard's Term

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's Senate voted 60-8 Wednesday to renew Magda Chambriard's appointment as a director at the National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, the country's leading regulator for the oil and natural gas industries.

Ms. Chambriard, who also took over as general director of the agency earlier this year, was appointed to a four-year term.

The former engineer at state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, first joined the ANP in 2002. Ms. Chambriard became one of the agency's senior directors in 2008, playing an important role in delineating government-held reserves that were transferred to Petrobras as part of the company's massive 2010 capital increase.

During testimony before a Senate committee, Ms. Chambriard pushed for broadening oil and natural gas exploration away from Brazil's dominant southeast region, where a majority of the country's crude oil is produced in the Campos Basin. Technological advances and growing demand for natural gas has made development of little-explored states such as Mato Grosso, Maranhao and Piaui economically viable, Ms. Chambriard said. She also called for greater offshore exploration in Brazil's northeast.