Oil towns

Many people have highlighted the wealth that the royalties have brought (to Macae), and we agree that the financial compensation has been high. But the social, infrastructure and environmental demands that we face every day because of the rapid growth has been equally high.Macae Mayor Riverton Mussi

MACAE

Macae has been described as the Aberdeen of the tropics, providing an offshore services hub to the big Petrobras oilfields in the Campos basin, but black gold never altered the very fabric of Scottish city in the way seen in Brazil.

Once a quiet fishing town with a silting industrial waterway once used for sugarcane exports, Macae has seen an explosion of growth that has sometimes threatened to run out of control.

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Oil towns