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You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in China for a visit. Strange as it may seem, there can be hardly any information found about the visit, which takes place on May 18-20. It brings up the idea that South America is working on an alliance with Asia’s largest states. It is not ruled out that China may eventually strengthen its influence near the borders of the United States and even set up Chinese army bases in the region. Brazil, the largest country of Latin America, suffered political and economic cataclysms during the 1990s just like the USSR. The...

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras, will start seeking bids for new rigs in the next couple of months as it marches on with its ambitious five-year investment plan. The Brazilian state energy giant in January announced it planned to invest $174.4 billion in 2009-13, including $28.6 billion this year -- an increase from $23 billion in 2008, which is unusual as global oil majors including U.S. firms Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips are cutting back on investment. Petrobras is banking on the ultradeep pre-salt area off Brazil's coast to elevate its status to one of the world's largest oil and...

Petrobras’ Downstream Director, Paulo Roberto Costa, stated on Monday that the Company does not intend to be a major oil exporter, rather, to export derivatives of higher market value. While participating in the "Integrating Oil Refining and Petrochemicals" panel, during the 14th edition of the Rio Oil & Gas, Costa guaranteed that in 2015 the company will produce, in Brazil and abroad, more than 3,000,000 barrels per day, 50% more than the 2,000,000 it currently produces. According to the director, the refining capacity will be increased with the new units that are being built in Brazil. In the upcoming years,...

Consider: The Brazilian government has a 58 percent controlling stake in Petrobras's voting shares and 32percent of its total shares, which means that some of the profits go straight to the government's bottom line, giving the politicians more money to spend on bribing their constituents. In the United States, American politicians do not benefit from a successful oil industry, since corporate profits go to shareholders, pensioners and employees; therefore Congress has a much greater incentive to respond to the concentrated power of the special interest group known as the "greens." There are plenty of other examples, says O'Grady: In Mexico,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's office acknowledged on Thursday that he was mistaken when he asserted that China, at Cuba's behest, is drilling for oil in waters 60 miles from the Florida coast. In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cheney said on Wednesday that waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, long off limits to oil companies, should be opened to drilling because China is already there pumping oil. ''Oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida,'' the vice president said. ''We're not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation...

Bloomberg, so cannot be posted (why?).Title says it all, but the story can be found here.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Thirty-two privately operated Venezuelan oilfields returned to state control Sunday with the start of the new year, the government said. At midnight Dec. 31, a deadline expired for all private companies with contracts to independently pump oil to agree to joint ventures that will give Venezuela's state oil company majority control. The 32 operating agreements were signed between 1990 and 1997, when Venezuela's petroleum industry was open to private and foreign capital. The objective at the time - when the price of crude was below $10 US a barrel - was to increase production at low-priority...

Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, says it has discovered a huge new offshore oil field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. The Papa-Terra field was found in the Campos Basin, which is already Brazil's most important oil-producing region. Petrobras estimates it contains at least 700 million barrels of crude - about 10% of Brazil's current reserves. The field, which is jointly operated with the US company Chevron, should start producing oil by the end of 2011. Petrobras said the oil from the Papa-Terra field was heavier than the sweet light crude favoured by international markets, but the firm...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's state oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research) (PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday its operations in Bolivia had not been hurt so far by civil unrest in the neighboring Andean country. Its two refineries and the production and export of natural gas in Bolivia -- its biggest investment in the country -- are operating under normal conditions, the company's press office said. Nevertheless, it later said protesters had occupied a terminal owned by a another company, Transrede, where it stores liquified gas from the San Alberto and San Antonio gas fields...

(Translation courtesy of El Conservador) Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, pledged this Sunday “more expediency” to his colleagues, Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe Vélez to spped up the creation of the multistate oil company Petroamérica comprised of several South American countries. “To Lula and Uribe a little bit more expediency”, said the chief of state, who argued that the establishment of such holding will boost the “strategic alliance of the state oil companies in South America”. “Let's make a deal, let's be a little bit more expedient and let's establish an alliance of oil companies to...