From 1964 onwards the Federal authorities undertook a comprehensive programme to overcome these obstacles and to provide an economic environment conducive to renewed expansion of the industrial sector, both public and private. In the last 25 years Brazil has succeeded in diversifying and expanding the production of manufactured goods and consumer durables. Furthermore, it has established technologically sophisticated industries especially in the fileds of telecommunications, electronic data processing, biotechnology, and new materials. Four key sectors - steel, automotive, petrochemicals, and utilities - have played a decisive role not only in the development of the industrial sector, but in the expansion of the economy as a whole. Until 1953 the production of crude oil in Brazil was only about 2,000 barrels a day, and the domestic refining capacity was just over twice that figure, forcing the country to be heavily dependent on imports. In that year, after long and sometimes difficult debates, Congress enacted legislation establishing the state-owned oil company Petrobrás. Having been granted exclusive rights for oil exploration and production, Petrobrás quickly set about identifying commercially viable oil deposits to become a self-sustaining, large-scale enterprise. Private enterprise was allowed to participate in the refining and distribution stages. By the early 1990's, spurred on by the world's first oil crisis in the 1970's, Brazil had more than tripled its oil production, reaching on July 1994 a record of 736.322 barrels per day. It also became self-sufficient as regards refining.

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