Recent Brazilian oil discoveries have lead Brazil’s richest man, Eike Batista, to take his company OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA public in a $3.37bn share offering. This from Bloomberg:

Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista is planning a 5.59 billion real ($3.37 billion) initial public offering of OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA, betting the country’s recent oil finds will lure investors who snubbed 20 IPOs this year.

“The market is definitely not the best right now, but for the oil sector that doesn’t really matter,” said Daniel Gorayeb, chief investment analyst at Spinelli SA, a Sao Paulo- based brokerage. “Brazil is a very attractive investment from a macro point of view, and the outlook for oil exploration in particular makes this IPO even more interesting.”

“Brazil’s Carioca field is a reserve with tremendous potential,” says Jason Simpkins in Money Morning, “as it may hold 33 billion barrels of oil and natural gas. Unfortunately, the field is 170 miles offshore, more than 6,000 feet under the surface of the water, and trapped beneath a shelf of salt 500 miles long and 125 miles wide.

“Technologically challenging, physically intensive and costly projects like these are the future of the oil industry.”

Read on here to for a trio of petro-profit plays.

“Australia, Brazil, and Canada are the ultimate destinations for resource investors,” says Brian Hunt in Daily Wealth.

“Each is blessed with awesome energy, metals, and agricultural wealth… and each ABC currency is soaring right now.”