Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling...in Brazil

[Philobeado]

You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil.

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas.

Cont.

President Obama Finances Offshore Drilling in Brazil - WSJ.com

 

[WillowTree]

Figures!

 

[Xenophon]

Why are we lending money to Brazil?

 

[Polk]

Why are we lending money to Brazil?

This particular agency (Import-Export Bank) serves to extend credit to foreign firms to buy American goods. When you really get down to it, it's a loan program designed to encourage domestic output.

 

[MIPS]

You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil.

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas.

Cont.

President Obama Finances Offshore Drilling in Brazil - WSJ.com

Of course, why wouldn't President Obama want to the government to finance oil exploration off the shores of one of our 57 states?

 

[PatekPhilippe]

That's good news...I got a buddy down there making $290k a year working 6 months on 6 months off on the Petrobas owned oil platforms. Tax dollars at work for America....

 

[uscitizen]

Cuba has oil now. And US companies were not allowed to participate in the ventures. Canadian, French and Someone else got them.

 

[rightwinger]

You need to stop getting your news from Glenn Beck

snopes.com: Obama Lends $2 Billion to Brazilian Oil Company

 

[uscitizen]

Viral emails the right loves em.

 

[MaggieMae]

You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil.

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas.

Cont.

President Obama Finances Offshore Drilling in Brazil - WSJ.com

Of course omitted (or ignored) by the critics is that these are KNOWN sources of vast amounts of oil, not drilling just for the sake of drilling on the hope that oil is there. Oil isn't going away as an energy source, not by a long shot. But I say it's better to ultimately rely on getting it from Brazil than from Venezuela (or the usual Mideast hot spots).

US financial support for Brazil to develop massive offshore pre-salt oil deposits — MercoPress

 

[MaggieMae]

That's good news...I got a buddy down there making $290k a year working 6 months on 6 months off on the Petrobas owned oil platforms. Tax dollars at work for America....

And because he's working outside the country, he pays no US taxes. Sweet.

 

[MaggieMae]

Cuba has oil now. And US companies were not allowed to participate in the ventures. Canadian, French and Someone else got them.

And the US was in a bidding war against China for the Brazilian Petrobas projects. What were we supposed to do? Stand by and watch as everyone else took a bite out of billions of gallons of crude from these new reservoirs?

 

[MaggieMae]

You need to stop getting your news from Glenn Beck

snopes.com: Obama Lends $2 Billion to Brazilian Oil Company

The story itself is six months old, and was discussed at length when it happened. I think some of these creeps just reach into their repertoires of anti-anything-Obama crapola and put the contents on autopilot to infect as many political forums as possible.

 

[Gadawg73]

It is amazing the internet myths folks post here as fact. The Obama loans to Brazil is just the latest.
No one actually believes any of it but it fits their ideology.

 

[beowolfe]

Facts About the Proposed Ex-Im Bank Loans for Petrobras' Brazilian Offshore Oil Exploration and Development
Background on Ex-Im Bank:
The Export-Import Bank of the United States’ (Ex-Im Bank) mission is to help create and sustain jobs for American workers. The Bank does this at no cost to the American taxpayer; in the past sixteen years the Bank has netted the American people $4.9 billion and the jobs those exports have supported.
More than 80% of Bank authorizations during the last fiscal year directly benefited small businesses.
Charges and facts:
Charge: The U.S. government is giving away more than $2 billion in taxpayer dollars to Brazil’s largest oil and gas company to drill for oil in Brazil.

Fact: The Bank has approved a preliminary commitment to lend up to $2 billion to Petrobras for the purchase of American-made goods and services. The funds will go to American exporters as payment for their sales to the company. Of note, the Bank is self-sustaining and no taxpayer dollars are involved.

Charge: The loans to Petrobras represent a giveaway of U.S. tax dollars.

Fact: The Bank’s activities do not cost the American taxpayer a dime. In fact, since 1992 the American people netted more than $4.9 billion and the jobs those exports created.

Charge: America is exporting jobs to Brazil as a result of the loans.

Fact: Only American made goods and services qualify for Ex-Im Bank loans or guarantees. This is the government doing what it's supposed to do - helping to create U.S. jobs, making sure that Americans get a fair shot at selling goods and services, and helping American workers compete on a level playing field against foreign competition.

Charge: The loan to Petrobras represents a reversal of the Obama Administration’s policies on off-shore drilling.

Fact: The Bank’s bipartisan Board unanimously approved the preliminary commitment to Petrobras on April 14, 2009, before any Obama appointees joined the Bank. In fact, at the time the Bank’s Board consisted of three Republicans and two Democrats, all of whom were appointed by George W. Bush.

Read Chairman Hochberg's Letter to the Editor that appeared in the August 21, 2009 editions of the Wall Street Journal.

The rest of the story!!

More wingnut insanity.

 

[beowolfe]

That's good news...I got a buddy down there making $290k a year working 6 months on 6 months off on the Petrobas owned oil platforms. Tax dollars at work for America....

And because he's working outside the country, he pays no US taxes. Sweet.

As long as he doesn't bring that money back to the US, he pays no US taxes. But if/when he brings it back into US jurisdiction, he gets his tax bill.

 

[MaggieMae]

That's good news...I got a buddy down there making $290k a year working 6 months on 6 months off on the Petrobas owned oil platforms. Tax dollars at work for America....

And because he's working outside the country, he pays no US taxes. Sweet.

As long as he doesn't bring that money back to the US, he pays no US taxes. But if/when he brings it back into US jurisdiction, he gets his tax bill.

Don't they get a huge exemption right off the top of something like a maximum of $100,000 if they work for an American company overseas? I may be wrong, but I think there's a lot of tax incentive if someone is able to do this. I recall seeing ads placed by Blackwater for temporary jobs in Iraq, and the no-tax and tax exemptions was an attraction they touted.

 

[beowolfe]

And because he's working outside the country, he pays no US taxes. Sweet.

As long as he doesn't bring that money back to the US, he pays no US taxes. But if/when he brings it back into US jurisdiction, he gets his tax bill.

Don't they get a huge exemption right off the top of something like a maximum of $100,000 if they work for an American company overseas? I may be wrong, but I think there's a lot of tax incentive if someone is able to do this. I recall seeing ads placed by Blackwater for temporary jobs in Iraq, and the no-tax and tax exemptions was an attraction they touted.

Yes. It's been a while since I did taxes, but back then he would have. However, the taxable income portion wasn't treated like income earned in the US.

 

[waltky]

Finally, someone in Congress is questioning it...

Senator Questions $2-Billion Loan to Brazil for Offshore Drilling as Domestic Production Languishes
Monday, March 21, 2011 – Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is questioning how the United States has benefited from a $2-billion loan the Export Import Bank of the United States made to a Brazilian oil company for its offshore drilling operations.

How has that loan, made several years ago, helped U.S. companies, the senator asked in a March 17, 2011 letter to Fred Hochberg, president of the Export-Import Bank. “I am sure you can understand the frustration Louisianans have with a $2 billion loan to produce energy offshore Brazil,” Vitter wrote to Hochberg – especially given the “ongoing de facto moratorium” on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The Obama administration has approved only three permits for drilling new deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico since it lifted its moratorium on issuing permits last October– seven months after the BP rig explosion and oil spill.

“I would appreciate a full accounting for the return on investment the American taxpayer has received, and is anticipated to receive, on the $2 billion loan to this Brazilian petroleum company,” Vitter wrote to Hochberg. “I want to understand why permitting domestically is nearly stalled, and if there is at least a return on this investment over the last year and a half for supporting production offshore Brazil.”

When Vitter first inquired about the loan to Brazil’s Petrobras two years ago, the Export-Import Bank responded to Vitter’s staff by telephone, explaining that the U.S. would benefit from the loan through the increased export of U.S. drilling products and services. The Export-Import Bank of the United States, the official export credit agency of the United States, helps finance the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets.

Specifically, Vitter now wants to know:

See also:

Drilling Unlikely to Lower Oil Prices, Energy Information Chief Says
Friday, March 18, 2011 - Richard Newell, administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), said that while oil prices are likely to stay above average for the remainder of 2011, it is unlikely that an increase in domestic oil production would dramatically affect oil prices in either the short-term or the long-term.

Newell, a political appointee, was tapped to head the EIA by President Barack Obama in mid-2009. In his testimony before the House Committee on Natural Resources on Thursday, Newell said that because oil is a global commodity dependent on global trends, domestic production would do little to ease prices at the pump in the near future. “Long term, we would not expect additional volumes of oil that could flow from resources of federal lands due to greater access to have a large impact on oil and gasoline prices,” said Newell.

He also said that increased production in the United States could potentially cause OPEC to lower production, thus negating any impact of increased drilling in the United States. “Another key issue is how OPEC production would respond to any increase in non-OPEC supply, potentially offsetting any direct price impact of an increase in U.S. production,” Newell told committee members.

“Of course, greater domestic crude oil production, no mater what the cause, be it increased development, higher resource potential in current known fields or wider application of advanced technology would impact local economic activity and net oil imports,” Newell added.

MORE

 

[Gadawg73]

1. Obama signed NO executive order for any loan.
2. The appoval on this was from officials of Export-Import Bank MAJORITY OF WHICH WERE BUSH APPOINTEES.
3. The majority of this $$$ IS PRIVATE $$$.
4. Guess what country the majority of all products and drilling widgets will be bought from? The US of A.
4. Guess where the majority of that 2 billion will come back to? The US of A.
5. EX-IM DOES NOT make US policy, ever.
6. These loans have generated over 4 billion in PROFIT PLUS THE JOBS over the last 16 years. Not costing the taxpayers ONE CENT.
Facts sure fuck up an ideologues day.