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To: elmatador who wrote (29463)	2/14/2008 4:18:40 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 219080

Well-log information is valuable, as anyone associated with the oil business well knows. If Halliburton had wanted to steal the well-log data in their possession, they would have simply copied it. Likewise the well-logging employees. If security is that bad, their own unauthorized copy of the data could help them land a lucrative job offer with a small unscrupulous exploration company. Nor is there any reason for Petrobras to "fake a theft". What would they get out of it? They simply have to pay to re-log the well, a trivial amount of money. If this "major oil find" simply isn't true, then Petrobras could be playing for time - but everyone would find out soon enough anyway. Would Brazilian executives act like that? You'd know better than I. Someone wanted the info paid for this theft in advance, or some person saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. In the second case, their problem will be trying to find someone who will but it. Most oil companies wouldn't touch it, and this well being in Brazilian waters will limit the use for most. .

To: elmatador who wrote (29463)	3/11/2008 5:33:54 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 219080

Another elmatador "wayo" theory bites the dust. . . . Not "wayo", just inherent Brazilian criminality. signonsandiego.com RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – When computers with information about newly discovered, massive oil fields off Brazil's eastern coast vanished earlier this month, allegedly in transit from an offshore rig, it jolted the oil industry and alarmed even the nation's president. On Thursday however, police said it was petty theft, not corporate espionage, that led to the disappearance of information about the Tupi fields, an oil discovery so large that Brazilian officials have said the country may join OPEC. “They didn't have the slightest idea of what they had,” federal police inspector Valdinho Jacinto Caetano said. Four security guards who worked at the port of Macae, a coastal city in Rio de Janeiro state, have been arrested and police recovered laptops and hard drives taken from state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, also known as Petrobras. Petrobras says the Tupi field in the Atlantic Ocean has as much as 8 billion barrels of light crude, and the Jupiter field off the coast of Rio could be just as big. News of the theft prompted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to decry the loss of “state secrets.” Authorities said on Feb. 14 that the equipment was stolen from Houston-based oil services company Halliburton Co. as it was being transported from an offshore rig to the city of Macae. But on Thursday, police said the theft occurred at the port and made no mention of Halliburton. The guards were employees of a security company hired by Petrobras to protect the port, Caetano said. They had been carrying out small thefts since September that went unnoticed until the computers disappeared, Caetano said. “This was a common crime,” he said. The guards, after realizing what had happened, panicked and destroyed some of the stolen loot, including a hard drive and monitor, Caetano said. Some of the equipment was still missing Thursday and Caetano said police were looking for it and other people who may have received the stolen property. During a press conference at federal police headquarters, Caetano justified his earlier characterization of the theft as a case of industrial espionage. “I said at the beginning, no hypothesis was being ruled out, and in cases like this you have to assume the worst,” he said. “Police now consider the case clarified, resolved.” The guards face charges of criminal conspiracy.