Brazil Seeks More Control of Oil Beneath Its Seas

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.

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

"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."

Lordy, this is such crap. How dare they "increase the country's benefits"? How dare they! This "COULD" slow development, at a time when we have failed to demonize Iran sufficiently to get Russia and China to back off and let us nuke the fuckers and TAKE their oil.

"The change (to 62% for Brazil) "would limit their (the multinationals') ability to help set the pace for the oil fields’ development, while giving Petrobras significantly more power to generate jobs and award lucrative contracts."

Yup, they definitely want to "help set the pace for the oil fields' development." Not. What they want to do is CONTROL development, fuck over the people of Brazil, fuck over the environment and OWN ALL the profits, and if Lulu doesn't give it to them, they've got the US 4th Fleet getting itself organized in the Caribbean, and seven new US military bases in Colombia, to outright steal it, and Venezuela's, and Ecuador's as well.

And they want the jobs. The Brazilians want the JOBS! That'll sure "slow down development," and if locals are hired instead of us flying our Texas oil jockeys in, we'll find another way to sabotage these communists!

Dear me, how I hate the NYT! And I don't use that word very often.