IPA’s Latin America office was created in 2001 to enhance IPA’s capabilities in analyzing projects from South to Central America, including the Caribbean basin, with the objective of helping local and non-local corporations effectively compete in today’s global market. The office was originally located in the United States, but has since been moved to Curitiba, Brazil.
Throughout the years, the IPA Latin America office has developed extensive expertise on capital projects in the region, particularly in the extractive industries (oil/gas exploration and production and mining and minerals processing), petroleum refining and petrochemicals, and basic chemicals. In 2007, this office led a study focused on developing capital projects in Brazil (the Brazil Study). This landmark study provided significant insight into project issues in Brazil, including labor and engineering productivity, project escalation, frontier problems, taxing and legal issues, infrastructure problems, etc. Other studies expanded on cost escalation for engineering, equipment, labor, and bulks in other countries in the region.
The nature of our regional work has also given us a great understanding of the issues surrounding projects developed by national oil companies and the constraints that are typically found in these organizations vis-a-vis private industry.