Free Republic

Rules: A bill encouraging the use of natural-gas-powered vehicles will give the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases while rewarding the Democratic left's patron saint. We like natural gas. It's the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, the U.S. has lots of it and, thanks to technologies such as hydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking"), we can get even more of it from the vast shale formations that dot the country. Others like it, too, which is why a bill floating through Congress, the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2011 (HR 1380), or Nat Gas Act, has seen a number of...

Exxon Mobil Corp. has made one of the largest oil and gas finds in the Gulf of Mexico in a decade, the company announced today. The oil major said it made two oil discoveries and a natural gas discovery in its Keathley Canyon blocks, including an oil discovery in the company’s first exploration well since last year’s moratorium on deep-water drilling. Exxon expects the combined finds to yield more than 700 million barrels of oil equivalent. More than 85 percent would be oil, the company said. Drilling early in 2010 turned up oil and natural gas at the well 250...

"Obama had nothing to do with the loan…. The President role is to appoint board members… Maybe those board members were Soros’ friends. But that’s probably beside the point… (Nothing here folks, move along, move on, moving forward as it were)

GLENN BECK, HOST: Do you remember way, way back when we showed you how George Soros was pumping money in Petrobras? That's the Brazilian oil company. But, then, he announced, "I sold my spooky dude shares of Petrobras" and he was out. So, it's totally cool. Everybody can relax. There's nothing to see here, people. When President Obama indicated that he was helping Petrobras secure loans. Then he approved a permit for the -- for the Brazilian oil company so they could -- they could source some of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, which we can't do, while...

Billionaire investment manager George Soros built on his position in Brazilian oil and gas company Petrobras in the first quarter of 2011 for his Soros Fund Management firm, according to the guru watchers over at Guru Focus.com on May 17. He now owns 1.1 million shares of Brazil’s state owned oil company. Soros sold out of Petrobras in mid-2010 only to return to the market in the fourth quarter of 2010 with the purchase of roughly 588,000 shares. The stock has been a money loser for Soros since getting back into the market, according to his average share price calculated...

President Obama sent a letter to Congress earlier this week urging them to “eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, and to use those dollars to invest in clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.” Let’s leave aside for a second the fact that even after 30 years of subsidies, clean energy energy accounts for just over 1% of all U.S. energy production. If Obama really wanted to reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow he could end his Gulf of Mexico permitorium on offshore drilling. Here are the facts: According to projections made by...

Let's see if I have this straight: America shouldn't drill for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico because our evil oil corporations surely will cause another accident like the BP spill and pollute all the oceans of the world; but it's no problema apparently for the obviously technologically superior Brazil to drill in the open Atlantic and sell their production to us? At least that is what I gleaned from the encouraging words delivered by our president to Brazilian leaders in a speech to local businessmen in Brasilia last week. Discussing the partnering of our two national economies,...

Anyone Want to Connect the Petro-Dots?Richard N. Weltz Let's see now, methinks there are a few dots out there just begging for someone to connect them: * George Soros and his various money-distribution organizations such as MoveOn.org spend heavily on behalf of Obama's run for the presidency. * Soros invests over $800 million for a large stake in Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company. * The U.S. arranges for the Ex-Im Bank to guarantee loans of $2 billion to Brazil for exploration of offshore oil finds. * Brazil makes a huge find right at its front door. * The U.S. shuts...

WASHINGTON, March 18 (UPI) -- Washington has given Petrobras America Inc. permission to start oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, a regulator said. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement gave Petrobras approval to use a floating production storage offloading facility at its Cascade-Chinook project in the Gulf of Mexico. The approval marks the first time FPSO technology will be used in U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The oil and gas project is about 165 miles off the coast of Louisiana in 8,200 feet of water. The FPSO has a production capacity of...

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wants answers from the US taxpayer supported Export-Import bank about a $2 billion loan to Brazil for offshore drilling. Vitter’s home state is suffering under a moratorium imposed by President Barack Obama. Vitter said Louisianians “are frustrated” and he wants to know “why permitting domestically is nearly stalled…” Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) had questions about ExIM—nine years ago when he asked Congress to reject the reauthorization of ExIm for “economic, constitutional and moral reasons.” Vitter sent a letter to Fred Hochberg, Ex-Im president, on March 17. Vitter asked Hochberg to identify all US companies that have...

Obama left his lush golf get-aways and NAACP basketball sprees to depart for a Brazilian vacation. ... Obama abandoned the victims of genocide in Libya to help America's oil opposition. Why? Out with Western oil, in with Russian and Brazilian oil. Is it just coincidence that George Soros sold his Western oil stock and bought stock in Russia and Brazilian oil companies, about three months ago ? ... Last March, Soros invested in airport screeners. How did he know to do that? Insider info!

U.S. regulators on Thursday for the first time approved the use of a floating production, storage and offloading vessel in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, a move that could help spur the exploitation of distant offshore fields. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.'s (PBR) Petrobras America unit could begin using a floating production, storage and offloading facility, also known as an FPSO, to produce oil and gas at its deepwater Chinook-Cascade project. The FPSO will have a production capacity of 80,000 barrels of oil per day and 16 million cubic feet of natural...

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. reports success from its extension drilling at exploration well 3-BRSA-891A-RJS in the Iara Evaluation Plan offshore Santos basin concession BM-S-11. The pre-salt well is 8 km (5 mi) from the discovery well and is in 2,279 m (7,477 ft) of water. Formation tests are to be performed to determine productivity. OGX Petróleo e Gás Participações S.A. reports hydrocarbons in its 1-OGX-31-RJS well in BM–C-41 in shallow waters of Campos basin. An oil column of about 149 m (489 ft) with approximately 48 m (157 ft) of net pay in the Albian section and a column of 59...

Noble Corp. in January announced plans to move one of its deep-water drilling rigs out of the Gulf of Mexico amid a spill-related slowdown in activity. This week, the Swiss-based driller made good on its promise. It loaded the Noble Clyde Boudreaux, an ultra-deepwater semisubmersible, on a ship in Pascagoula, Miss., that will carry the rig 5,000 miles to Brazil, where it has a contract with Shell. That new contract, starting in April, will last for a year and is $290,000 per day less than the previous Gulf lease, Noble said. Noble, Diamond Offshore and other offshore drilling contractors have...

George Soros has been a brilliant investor over the years. As befits many hedge fund operators, he uses leverage to magnify his returns. But in his case, leverage has a double meaning. Leverage can refer to the debt Soros assumes when he makes his investments. But it can also refer to the practice Soros has engaged in, both overseas and in America, to use his money and influence to bolster his political power -- power that he then uses to boost returns on his investments. He is not just a hedge fund billionaire but a crony capitalist kingpin who puts...

As oil prices continue to climb, a backlog of more than 100 offshore drilling plans for the Gulf of Mexico are awaiting approval from the Obama administration, according to federal data. The federal government has not approved a single new exploratory drilling plan in the Gulf of Mexico since lifting its deepwater drilling moratorium on Oct. 12. There are currently 103 plans awaiting review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. The information reveals that the Obama administration — not the oil industry — is the culprit for the slowdown of drilling activity in the Gulf. The...

WASHINGTON — After two court rulings against its six-month moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling, the Obama administration on Monday announced a revised ban that it described as essential and appropriate. The Interior Department said the revised ban incorporates "new evidence regarding safety concerns" as well as new procedures to gather industry feedback. Moreover, the revision suspends drilling not based on water depth, it said, "but on the basis of the drilling configurations and technologies."

WASHINGTON/NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Thursday it will immediately issue a revised ban on deepwater drilling if an appeals court does not allow it to reinstate the six-month moratorium it imposed in the wake of the BP oil spill...

Govt: Obama Drilling Ban to Cut Supply Sharply Thursday, 08 Jul 2010 09:42 AM The Obama administration's contested moratorium on deepwater drilling will take a larger portion out of U.S. oil production next year than previously thought, the government's energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday. Oil production next year is expected to be cut by 82,000 barrels per day, or almost 30 million barrels total, due to delayed or canceled drilling caused by the moratorium, the Energy Information Administration said. That is 17 percent more from the 70,000 bpd in lost output the agency predicted just last month. Monthly production...

Last month I went into extended detail about the story called Crime Inc. Exposed by Glenn Beck, Crime Inc. is a web of liberal and progressive organizations that leave a trail all the way to the White House and President Obama. Cap and Trade is the flag all of the players rally in Crime Inc. rally around. Mr. Beck added another twist to the story, as if it was not spooky enough already. Only now the central theme is George Soros. First let me lay out who the major players are, but please do not get lost in the details:...