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BRAZIL'S NEW OIL PARTNER IS...

GUESS WHO?

BP recently announced that the Brazilian National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP) has approved its bid to purchase 10 exploration and production blocks in Brazil from Devon Energy. BP had declared its decision to buy the assets from Devon in March 2010, and had been waiting for the regulatory approvals from ANP since then.

However, the ANP put the deal in Brazil on hold -- admittedly to see how BP contains the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- and finally cleared it now seeing BP's response to the world's largest accidental oil spill.

With the Brazilian deepwaters showing a lot of promise in terms of oil and gas reserves, BP's exploration in the area is expected to primarily add to the company's oil production capacity in the years to come.

More from Forbes

I guess the Brazilian regulators decided that that BP had done a good job in the Gulf of Mexico. (Will wonders never cease!) But I keep thinking about those lovely beaches of Rio de Janeiro.