Tuesday, March 22, 2011

What was Obama doing in Brazil?

This past week, during the height of the disaster in Japan and the US coalition effort to set up a no-fly zone in Libya, President Obama packs his bags and head for Brazil.
For what?

To seal a deal for George Soros, the multi-billionaire socialist, maybe?
  
Back in June of 2010, towards the end of the Gulf oil spill disaster, President Obama issued a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling and within 48 hours, the George Soros-backed Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, contacted a large New Orleans company, Laborde Marine, which services the deep-water drilling market. The company was seeking to lease all its vessels. “If the moratorium on deep-water drilling is not lifted, 33 semi-submersible rigs and/or drill ships affected will simply go to other countries where they will be well received, such as Brazil,” Cliffe F. Laborde and J. Peter Laborde, Jr. wrote in a June 4 letter to their Louisiana Senators.

Prior to that, in August of 2009 the US government prepared up to $10 billion in loans to finance the development of massive hydrocarbon reserves off Brazil’s coast.
President Barack Obama’s then national security adviser, Gen. James Jones, discussed the matter with officials, back then, during a visit to the South American country, Brazilian Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo da Silva told reporters.
He said the U.S. Export-Import Bank already has signed a letter of intent in that regard with Brazilian state oil company Petrobras.
The loan is equal in value to a similar credit line agreed to with the China Development Bank, also for exploiting Brazil’s "pre-salt" area, so-named because the estimated 80 billion barrels of high-quality crude in that new oil frontier lie far beneath the ocean floor under layers of rock and an unstable salt formation.
Under the agreement with the Chinese state bank, finalized during Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s visit to Beijing in May, Brazil can repay the loan facility with oil as opposed to cash…
This has been going on now for some time, as you will see.
Now we step back in time a bit, there is this, from Bloomberg:
Soros hedge fund invests $811m to buy Petrobras stake
August 15, 2008
London: Billionaire investor George Soros bought an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in the second quarter, making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company his investment fund’s largest holding.
As of June 30, the stake in Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based oil producer is known, made up 22 per cent of the $3.68 billion of stocks and American depositary receipts held by Soros Fund Management, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Petrobras has since slumped 28 per cent…
In November, Petrobras announced the discovery of Tupi, a field with as much as 8 billion barrels of reserves, making it the largest find in the Americas since 1976.
“Petrobras has something that other oil companies don’t have: oil – lots of it and they’re going to find more,” said Ricardo Kob-ayashi, equity fund manager with UBS Pactual in Rio de Janeiro…
Tupi is part of a new deepwater offshore region known as the pre-salt that may contain as much as 50 billion barrels, according to Peter Wells, oil analyst with the UK’s Neftex Petroleum Consultants.
The drop in Petrobras’ US-traded common shares since June 30 would have reduced the value of Soros’s disclosed stake by $235 million.
Soros Fund Management didn’t report holding any Petrobras shares at the end of the first quarter. It did disclose much smaller stakes in the Brazilian oil company during 2007, including 150,000 depositary shares, with a market value of about $17.3 million at December 31.
The hedge fund company also had calls on another 35,000 shares at December 31
But as of today, lookie here, Soros’s top 5 holdings are:
1.Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.Petrobras (PBR) – 9,818,323 shares, 15.42% of the total portfolio 
2.Hess Corp. (HES) – 5,123,198 shares, 10.56% of the total portfolio 
3.Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.Petrobras (PBR-A) – 5,884,700 shares, 7.53% of the total portfolio 
4.Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (POT) – 1,978,053 shares, 7.06% of the total portfolio 
5.Plains Exploration & Production Company (PXP) – 6,526,400 shares, 6.84% of the total portfolio
And Reuters is reporting:
WASHINGTON/HOUSTON, March 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior
Department said on Thursday it gave final approval for
Petrobras (PETR4.SA) to use the first ever deep-water floating
production storage facility in the Gulf of Mexico.

And Obama, well he is right in the thick of things with Brazil and Petrobras as he attends the Brazil US Business Summit.
3/21/2011
Petrobras’ president and CEO, José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, participated in the “Creating a Secure and Sustainable Future for the Energy Sector” panel, held during the Brazil-United States Business Summit, sponsored by the Industry Confederation (CNI), in Brasilia, today (03/19).
In the event, Gabrielli said the global demand for oil is likely to increase with the resumption of economic growth in the United States.
Gabrielli highlighted the U.S. government’s approval of Petrobras’ oil and gas production project at the Cascade and Chinook fields, in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
“We are taking the first FPSO production system to the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. regulatory body acknowledged the project’s technology and safety.” All approvals have been given, and production should begin soon.
So here we have it.

While OUR attention has been focused on Japan and Libya, Obama has rewarded his main campaign contributor, Soros, with a good looking stock portfolio that includes deep water oil exploration and extraction and, at the same time, turned his back on American companies, that provide millions of jobs, while harming prosperity in America by handing the Gulf and American energy independence over to a Socialist and a foreign country.

18 comments:

Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

Good post but I find myself saying this often these days; Is anyone really surprised?

Hussein does this over and over; bailouts and "stimulus" favor the unions and foreign banks, waivers to 'certain' companies on Obamacare, no investigation/prosecution from his DOJ on white discrimination,,,, and on and on.

All this while Boenher and Co. sit on their fricking hands and do nothing!

Unknown said...

Surprised, no. As I see it now a days, it's becoming a country that people see as leaderless.
The DOJ has got a mild case of KKKism and will only uphold the laws of the nation by it choosing.

I am quite confused on Boehner baby steps on this budget. He's got some other things through the House but it ends up hitting a brick wall in the Senate, which I expected.
The Senate needs to be flipped also to get things done.

As to this post. Obama, as president, must be a leader for all, not just one or two, as he has done here.

Chris said...

It does amaze me that Obama has made a 7 year moratorium for offshore drilling while at the same time going to Brazil to help them become energy self reliant. Who's side is this guy on? It isn't ours that's for sure. It's sad that all those Americans are being put out of work and more of our money is going to other countries. Is this more "spread the wealth on a global scale? It sure looks like it.

Thank God people are starting to see what this guy is doing to this country. 32% approval is still too high for what he has don't to this country.

Anonymous said...

Mark,
While i applaud that you took some relatively sparse articles and applied the links and did some research i am surprised that you got so much wrong. but as i have said lately you and Adams have been slipping. So here's whats wrong.

1. The 2009 ex-im bank loan commitment was for purchase of US produced supplies and services. Good for us right? It was given by a non-partisan board that hadn't received a Obama nominee yet.

2. As of 12/31/2010 which is the only date i can get he had

588,000 shares of the preferred
3,500,000 shares of the regular or 1.72% of his weighted portfolio.

http://www.gurufocus.com

3. Calling it a Soro's backed company is not correct. He holds .09 percent of all common (voting) stock.

So you might want to look at things a little differently. This is not the conspiracy you make it out to be. and to help you along i wanted to link this Forbes article

http://blogs.forbes.com/kenrapoza/2011/03/21/how-the-wall-street-journal-set-off-a-firestorm-against-petrobras/

have a good hump day.

Anonymous said...

Chris, a seven year deep water drilling moratorium? Wow i just read about new permits so drilling this week.

And the Beaumont Enterprise called it a 5 month moratorium.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Feds-give-first-green-light-for-deep-water-1034804.php

And the Chronicle ran a piece on Exxon getting aproved to drill yesterday.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7486847.html

So your talking about the Florida Bush ban that Obama was going to lift until the spill. Well, you can't win them all.

Unknown said...

Joe,
"1. The 2009 ex-im bank loan commitment was for purchase of US produced supplies and services."
1.a. Some, not all.

2. His portfolio to date (as of March 17th 2011) is as stated. Sorry.

3. To date he holds nearly 23%, as stated. Sorry. Whether it is .10% or 99% it still is backed.
Petrobras stock up 4.62% YTD

Yes I read that Forbes story, my research shows otherwise.

Sorry, Joe, these are the facts that were presented to me and I pieced it together to come to at least my conclusion that Obama cares more about his major campaign donor then the country, it's military operation in Libya and the disaster engulfing Japan

But of course, I wouldn't expect anything less from you to defend Soros and the President.

AdamsPatriot said...

Great post Mark,
Your post came just before FOX NEWS aired this:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/23/lawmakers-execs-slam-obama-boosting-brazils-offshore-drilling/

Obama cares nothing about our ecomomy and jobs, if he did we would have these jobs here in America instaed of Brazil.
Obama cares only about his indeology and his biggest donor, Soros, who is an enemy to America.

Treason: The betrayal of one's own country by waging war against it or by consciously or purposely acting to aid its enemies.

Here ia a quote on treason, who in our government typifies this quote?
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

AdamsPatriot said...

Mark,
Apparently the 'American Thinker' has connected the dots, also,
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/03/anyone_want_to_connect_the_pet.html

Anonymous said...

Now is the point at which i tell you that some of those people are lying or deceiving themselves about a multitude of things. I know you guys hate it when i defend reason and a skeptics way of thinking to your conspiracies but what your getting at is simply not the way it is.

1. The Export-Import Bank is a guarantor of loans used to purchase American made goods and some services. It does not loan money so foreign companies can buy foreign goods. Any disbursements are to US producers. So a initial 2 billion dollar loan would be helpful to our economy.
2. The Ex-Im bank is not a Taxpayer subsidized entity. In fact the bank has been putting money into the federal government coffers all though while having foreign companies take loans to purchase our goods. WTF is David Vitter talking bout?
3. We have significant industry that caterers to drilling outside of the day to day operations itself. Getting Brazil to purchase our goods instead of China's would be an important thing to achieve would it not. Just because our industry is slowed down now, doesn't mean you shouldn't work on allies purchasing our industry related stuff too.

Finally I do agree that he needs to speed up the permit process and get our wells going. On that i agree with the both of ya. But we still have to increase our exports to those in the same business right?

Unknown said...

AP, NICE! Good to see this, and many other issues, got many to keep an eye on Obama's every move.
Even the American Thinking caught on with the Soros connection.

Unknown said...

On top of that Chris, what Petrobras pulls out of the ocean floor is sold back to us.
Isn't that nice of them... NOT!

AdamsPatriot said...

The left has been screaming at Bush for his oily hands in foreign affairs and supporting oil companies.

Now here is Obama sending our jobs and our ability to produce and become independant to a foreign country and connectin with a known wealthy destroyer of monetary systems and the left is OK with that.

At the habds of Soros and Obama the union worker will loose their pensions and their high standards of living. The union bosses will continue to such you into paying them and maintaining power of the common man.

9.2 million people rely on jobs with the oil industry in America, how about supporting that!

Chris said...

Is Soros getting a little head from Obama?lol

Chris said...

I can't believe that Joe is still trying to protect Obama from his stupid anti-American agenda. Either Obama is against us or he is with us. Does his actions prove he is with us? How will this action help America? We need to start asking this question with everything Obama is doing.

What Obama is doing with Petrabas is no different then teaching a country how to plant up a farm, doing the work of planting and then buying the product from them after we did most of the work. Does that sound right to anyone other then Joe?

Anonymous said...

Nice to see that all of ya ignored what i wrote to stick with broken and beaten down partisan ideologies.

Chris, what is with us or against us? Should we not sell our products to Brazil? They are going to drill that area with us or without right? So we should ignore that chance to sell our goods because we aren't doing something over here?

I personally believe he should do both. But that doesn't get me anywhere with you guys.

Anonymous said...

hey check and see if you are getting major help from Obama like George Soro.

http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=PBR.A

Is your fund on these lists, then hes looking out for you too.

Unknown said...

"Nice to see that all of ya ignored what i wrote to stick with broken and beaten down partisan ideologies."
If you'd stick to the subject, maybe you'd get a reply.
This is not about Ex-Im at all.
It's about opening the Gulf to a foreign country and Petrobras (a Soros 23% holding) oil company to extract when the US Companies are being restricted at all attempts around our country and how Soros is benefitting from this deal.

AdamsPatriot said...

Joe, It's not about partisan, it's about America.
Mark may not respond because your not with the subject matter, but my lack of response is because America is upside down and the distuction of America is clear, sorry you can't see it, perhaps your being partisan, ever think about that possiblity?

It's not about Obama's race,
It's not about Obama's birth certificate,
It's not about Obama being a Democrat and/or Socialist
It's not about Obama's golf game

But what it is about:
is the company Obama keeps
It's about the advisors he surrounds himself with
it's about their theroies and actions for dismatling America
Most importantly it's about America's tomorrow.

I have learned long long ago that actions speak louder than words and if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck...it's a duck!

You can provide research upon research here at this post, but the bottom line is what Obama is actually 'doing'.

His actions speak not to hope and change for America, his actions speak for the distruction of America, and I don't believe that I am speaking out of partisanship, it is out of genuine concern because of his actions.

The closer we come to the end it becomes even clearer.

I would suggest you stop and really take a long hard look at what is going on in America with Obama at the helm.

It's not just me and Mark, but more and more people are connecting the dots and seeing were we are headed, I hope you will be able to be more objective.

But in the mean time our posts here are going to be posts that expose Obama for what he is and what he is doing.