Don’t know much about W&T Offshore, Inc, the compamy that owns the closest rig. Finger pointing should begin about dawn between them and BP....
Soros sold the last of the Petrobras stock in Aug of 2010, prior to the Petrobras stock offering.
Of course, Soros himself never owned any stock in Petrobras, it was the Soros Fund Management Firm that owned the stock. Undoubtedly Soros would benefit if the fund benefited, but most of the money in the fund belonged to others.
Following your link, note that Maulkin says "Obama chipped in $2 billion in loans"
That's accurate. After the Brazil Development Bank put in $14.5 billion, international banks put in $5.5 billion, and the China Development Bank put in $10 billion, that $2 billion loan from the US ExIm bank is a little chip.
Have you read the recent Forbes article published everywhere on the internet, except at Free Republic? It appears that Petrobras has never utilized the ExIm loan. Low interest loans are great but they are still loans with interest that have to be paid back. It is much more desirable to raise capital by selling stock.