Brazil Seeks More Control of Oil Beneath Its Seas

Source: New York Times

Brazil Seeks More Control of Oil Beneath Its Seas
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Published: August 17, 2009

RIO DE JANEIRO — Faced with the world’s most important oil discovery in years, the Brazilian government is seeking to step back from more than a decade of close cooperation with foreign oil companies and more directly control the extraction itself.

The move is part of a nationalistic drive to increase the country’s benefits from its natural resources and cement its position as a global power. But it could significantly slow the development of the oil fields at a time when the world is looking for new sources, energy and risk analysts said.

This month, Brazil’s government said it wanted the national oil company, Petrobras, to control all future development of the deep-sea fields discovered in 2007, which international geologists estimate could hold tens of billions of barrels of recoverable oil.

The change would make Petrobras the operator for the 62 percent of the new area that has yet to be bid out, consigning foreign companies to the role of financial investors. That would limit their ability to help set the pace for the oil fields’ development, while giving Petrobras significantly more power to generate jobs and award lucrative contracts.

The oil lies beneath about 20,000 feet of water, shifting sand, and a thick layer of salt. This so-called pre-salt region, stretching hundreds of miles, is the biggest oil reserve being developed in the world today, especially given the lack of headway in gaining access to Iraq’s extensive deposits, said Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an energy research consultancy. It is also expected to be among the most complicated sets of projects in the history of the oil industry.






Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/world/americas/18brazil.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

"It is also expected to be among the most complicated sets of projects in the history of the oil industry".
Good for them, acountry should be in charge of their resources.

But I'm glad to see Brazil taking the steps toward controlling their oil. Now if only they would realize just how important it is to keep their oil and use it for their future generations and not sell it to the highest bidder.

Having moved their entire automobile fleet over to mostly-renewable fuels (based on alcohols produced from sugar cane), the Brazilians have the luxury of not needing the oil immediately, and not particularly needing all the profits.

If Brazil does what the United States intended to do in the 1970s, which was to keep the domestic supply in the ground as a strategic petroleum reserve, they have a chance at becoming the dominant power in the Americas, wresting the Monroe Doctrine away from the amoral corporations that control the United States, and rebuilding South America in their own resource husbanding, self-determination loving image. They might even be able to exert some much-needed influence over the United States itself.

But only after they defeat the CIA first.

destruction.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jAlrUYh_eMOoOC40JXD3Leu56lWA

Yeah, I'm with you all the way on that. But my guess is that now that Brazil has made the transition, it won't be long before they start to look for ways to concentrate production and minimize the impact. Alcohol can be produced just as easily in a vat full of recycled biomass as it can using fresh sugar cane, though the yield will be smaller.

For me, the big step was shaking off the oil company vampire bats in the first place. Now, they can do whatever is best for themselves and their environment, which they hopefully will... very soon.

but we shall see.