If you are a financial market veteran, you surely remember Eike Batista, the businessman who managed to attract thousands of investors to OGX with the promise of turning the company into one of the largest oil producers in Brazil. OGX went public in 2008, just two years after the discovery of the pre-salt, a massive oil reservoir located deep under the Brazilian coast.

Billionaire Eike Batista, who had managed to lure thousands of investors to OGX with the promise of turning the company into one of Brazil’s largest oil producers, turned the promise into a nightmare. The disappointment came in 2013, when the company admitted that reserves were not as promising as expected.

OGX went public in 2008, two years after the discovery of the Pre-Salt, a massive oil reservoir located deep off the coast of Brazil. With no success, Eike Batista saw OGX shares drop to a penny on the stock exchange, and the investment made Batista the eighth richest man in the world.

Statements about OGX

Geologist and YouTuber Sergio Saccani, who worked at OGX during that time, shared details about the company's bankruptcy in a podcast with Renato Cariani. “I was at Eike when it was built. I worked when the company was being destroyed, which was very sad, because the girl from HR would come and say, ‘Renato Mauricio, come here now,’ meaning he had already been fired. I saw everyone get fired.”Sakany said.

While Eike Batista saw his fortune disintegrate, another Brazilian company realized its dreams and extracted oil from the pre-salt. “Ike hired a lot of good people to find oil. But there are two things about oil: one is finding it, and the other is pulling it out. Exploration is one thing, production is another. Ike had assembled the best exploration team in the world, and he needed to sell that he knew where the oil was, but he didn’t invest in production people, and that was his problem.“Sakani commented.