Posted on 06/30/2008 8:23:39 AM PDT by thackney
Brazil will at least triple its oil reserves by exploring the new Tupi offshore area, and will use the future revenues on healthcare and education for the country, according to Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva.
"This is very promising for Brazil. We have to take advantage of this oil to develop the country," Lula told Bloomberg Television. "It's a chance for the Brazilian poor to use this money as opposed to having people with a lot of oil and three or four watches and a Rolex in their pockets. We want to take advantage of these riches to ensure that Brazil can take a great leap forward."
The Brazilian president avoided estimating the exact amount of petroleum that will be produced in the areas recently discovered by state oil concern Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras). Asked whether there was a possibility of tripling the current volume of production, he said, "There must be more than that, but I don't have the exact figure because there would be a lot of speculation in the stock market."
Concerning the methods that the government will use to explore the new Brazilian discoveries, Lula said, "That is a state secret." He said only that exploration of the Tupi well in the Santos Basin would take place in March. "We are going as deep as possible; we are working even more intensively."
Lula said he has changed his mind and won't seek membership for Brazil in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. "I'm under no illusion that Brazil will join OPEC," he said. "I used to be, but am no longer."
Instead, Lula expressed confidence in his country's transformation into a major producer of petroleum and exporter of petroleum products.
"I cannot discuss the size of the reserves, but I feel that Brazil is going to be transformed into a major producer. I do not want it to become an exporter of petroleum," he said. "I want Brazil to export petroleum products."
No reason for high oil price
Meanwhile, according to Lula, there is no reason for the successive rises in the price of oil. "Petroleum does not need to cost what it does; half that amount would be fine," he said.
He pointed out that the experts attribute the higher price of petroleum to several things such as rising consumption in China or the increasing use of reserves in the US. "But we are aware that the price does not need to be what it is."
In Lula's opinion, governments need to consider the impact of petroleum costs on food production, citing the cost of fertilizer and transportation. "I believe that the world will realize the irresponsibility of this point in time because of both petroleum and food," he said.
In Lula's opinion, the stand by US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama against purchasing Brazilian ethanol and John McCain's stand in favor of it are just part of an election strategy. "When they take office," he said, "they will begin working in terms of reality."
In fact, Lula is convinced that Brazilian ethanol will be used in the US regardless of who wins the upcoming presidential election. "Whoever wins the election there will realize that it is cheaper, generates more employment, guarantees more peace, and creates no conflict with food production."
"I'm convinced that whoever wins the election will start using ethanol made from sugarcane," Lula said.
Anyone have an idea what "increasing use of reserves" he is talking about?
Only one country with the ability to go after new oil reserves is not doing so. And its a direct result of the 1060s, “I hate America” crowd now taking on the environmental cause. Strangle America, force the economy into recession and do all you can to destroy the country.
Wow, now THAT'S really old school! :-)
And Lulu’s a communist/socialist
Strategic Reserves?
yes I'm yelling.
Don’t those Brazilians know that they can’t drill their way out of this??
Reid/Pelosi are the worst congressional leaders in American history. To be turbocharged in their mega-incompetence and freezer full of cash corruption should Hussein ever seize the Presidency.
The reason Brazil is soon to be self sufficient in oil and we are not:
Yes, and isn't it pathetic that they are now more forward thinking than the American'ts that now "lead" our Country.
If they are talking about the amount going into the SPR, that has been 36.7 thousand barrels per day for the last couple months.
http://www.spr.doe.gov/dir/dir.html
For a comparison, the average petroleum use for the US declined an average of 1,143 thousand barrels per day over approximately the same period.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mttupus2m.htm
So the decrease in US consumption is 30 times larger than the amount going into the reserve. If that was the claim, it is obviously BS.
Why? Nobody outside FR can hear you.
I take it that he means that we are increasingly using up our known reserves. Just my opinion though.
That will take years.
Liberals say anything that takes years should not be pursued.
He sure as heck can’t mean we’re using the US oil reserves.
I'm FAR more interested in McCain's call to open OUR OWN oil fields offshore. However, I like the Brazilian president. He seems to be a very smart man.
How can we be using up our own reserves? They’re reserves. We’re building them up because we’re adding to them and NOT using them. This can result in lower heating bills this winter, regardless of whom is elected.
Not the Strategic Reserves. Just production reserves and known reserves.
Lulu is a communist/socialist as noted above.
AH. And how do we do this without opening up those known reserves for exploitation?
I think what the guy was saying was that the reserves that we can explore and produce from are decreasing. Which is true.
Hope that makes sense?
He’s on the money about “Chinese demand” being a total crock though - China’s demand isn’t much higher than it was last year. He’s right about the price of oil not needing to be as high as it is, and he’s also right about our government’s irresponsibility in not taking into account the impact of the price of oil has on the rest of our economy: it should have been incorporated into US policy during or directly after the oil embargo during the 70’s nearly flatlined us.
He doesn’t know anything. He is wrong about the US Gov’t in every possible way. He is a Communist and doesn’t know anything about China. Another O’Bama.
DRILLING...... Known untapped oil deposits are RESERVES.
I thought Brazil was the country that developed sugarcane ethanol several decades ago so it wouldn’t need gasoline anymore.
Ah. That would be the case worldwide though, not just in the US, as evidenced by the fact that Brazil just announced they’re going to exploit their newly found reserves.
OK, but I agree with him about China. I’ve followed the oil market most of my life, just because my father made a career in the oil industry, and this excuse about “increased Chinese demand” being behind the sudden rise in oil per barrel is crap.
So how does increased drilling, more production equate to higher prices?
Source: http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?id=246842180355425&secid=1501&status=article
Peak oil paranoia. When we're down to your last 12 years of known oil reserves and we want to use it today it draws attention.
It’s only 12 years when you don’t count most of the oil we have.
We have lots of petroleum resouces. What we lack is a will to use them.
I don't think he was so much as implying increased production as he was implying an increase use of our known and untapped reserves in the face of not discovering new reserves domestically. Just my guess. His wording was a bit confusing.
I’m still confused. How do we have increased use of untapped reserves?
For example, some of the big finds in the Gulf of Mexico in the late 1990s are just now being tapped while similar finds and not being found to replace previous finds.
How do we have increased use of untapped reserves?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037974/posts
Wouldn’t that be tapped reserves?
Brazil is the world’s new superpower.
I meant the new member of the few.
Perhaps they will sell us some cheap ethanol once they can afford fill their tanks with straight gas.
The CEO of BP says there are 41 years of known at the present rate of production. Obviously the present rate of production could not be sustained right to the end, so there would still be a few barrels left long after we are gone.
So is the intent to open up all these other areas for increased production or for easy access?
We already import more ethanol from Brazil than from anywhere else.
As for cheap, don’t count on it.
I thought we weren’t allowed to import Brazilian ethanol because it was sugar based. I thought there was a ban on that which is why we decided to turn our food into ethanol. Pretty sure I saw an article or two on that. Where am I wrong?
As for cheap... I should have included a sarcasm tag. ;-]
Yeah, I’ve seen that myth repeated by politicians and reporters.
Brazil has been the largest source of imported ethanol for years.
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/industry/statistics/#F
It’ll take a long time to come on line. They really shouldn’t bother. It’ll be too tough to get at. They could have a spill. People will just use the oil.
thanks for the link and clarification.
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