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Located 180km from Rio de Janeiro city (in Brazil’s south east), until the 1970s Macaé was a small and rural seaside town that mainly relied on tourism (due to its beaches, the idyllic island of the Sant’anna archipelago, the Restinga mountains amongst others) as well as sugar production and fishing.  It was the installation of the national oil company Petrobras’ headquarters in 1977 (in the Praia da Imbetiba) that initiated the radical transformation of the city to where it is today.  What was a rural municipality began to undergo profound changes particularly with the arrival of large amounts of people in order to meet the city’s growing demand for skilled labour.

Today, the city is part of the world scenario – considered strategic for national development and well-recognised as the ‘Oil Capital’ of Brazil.  In terms of population, it is an area that has grown the most in the entire state of Rio de Janeiro (since 1970, the number of inhabitants has tripled to 200,000).  Due to the international scope of the Petrobras organisation, the number of foreigners living in the region has also increased to 10 percent (as at 2009).

Today, Macaé is responsible for more than 80 percent of domestic production of oil and 45 percent of natural gas production.  The future prospects of the region are built around the pre-salt oil fields that were discovered off the coast in recent years.  Below is a map of the main fields of the region:

Whilst the challenge of gaining access to the petroleum remains ever-apparent, particularly from a practicality point of view, the city currently has over 4,150 installed companies (largely related to petroleum but also in other sectors including agriculture, livestock and fishing).  Macaé is also witnessing a growing expansion of hotels (including the Blue Tree, the Sheraton Four Points and the Best Western) as well modern restaurants, a lively night life and other entertainment facilities.

Another issue that has caused controversy is the distribution of royalties that have resulted from the growth of the petroleum industry in the region.  Currently, funds are currently solely allocated to the city to be used for infrastructural developments – however, a bill that was passed in April 2010 officially stated that the royalties from any future petroleum based activity in Brazil, including the mining of the pre-salt fields, should be more evenly distributed throughout the country.  Whilst initially contested against by public from Macaé and surrounding regions (including street protests which ground Rio de Janeiro city to a halt), the government amended the bill for royalties to be allocated to projects in the country specifically focused on poorer sections of society including educational, poverty combating, health, science, technology, the environment and cultural programmes.  An example of a project which is in receipt of petroleum royalty funding that is already well established in Macaé and its surrounding regions (including Rio das Ostras, São Francisco do Itabapoana and São João da Barra) is the Joven Aprendiz programme –which provides training programmes for young people aged between 14 and 24 with the aim of enabling them to enter the formal employment sector as well as working with companies in the region to help build and develop connections and associations.