Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (137419)	7/14/2010 7:53:07 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 206325

More oil added to Brazil's recoverable reserves RIO DE JANEIRO, July 13 (UPI) -- First tests at Brazil's offshore Franco field added another 50,000 barrels a day of crude oil to the Latin American country's reserves amid a mixture of celebration and caution in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico environmental disaster. Brazil, like Canada and other countries with major newly discovered hydrocarbon reserves, has reacted to BP's Deepwater Horizon woes with measures designed both to forestall a similar debacle and to manage global media if a similar incident happens. Most of Brazil's newly discovered oil is deep under the seabed and tens of miles from the mainland. As Brazil's proven oil reserves rose with new discoveries, the government launched a series of military refurbishment plans but not, apparently, any immediate countermeasures against a media fallout and financial costs of an accident. The Deepwater Horizon disaster changed that perspective, however, as it did elsewhere that new underwater discoveries became public in 2009 and this year. Analysts said the Deepwater Horizon disaster would continue to be, at best, a cautionary tale for offshore oil prospectors and, at worst, a disincentive for further investment in deep-water drilling for hydrocarbons. Concerns over a Gulf of Mexico-style mishap occurring in the North Falkland basin, the South Atlantic scene of current drilling for hydrocarbons in the British overseas territory, put off some investors. But the lure of profits from huge oil reserves has proved overpowering, despite risks of a fresh conflict with Argentina over the Falklands. The Deepwater Horizon tragedy would continue to overshadow all offshore oil drilling for the foreseeable future, analysts said. The latest Brazilian drilling results followed work on the Franco sub-salt field, which is said to hold 4.5 billion barrels equivalent of recoverable oil. Brazil's National Oil Regulatory Agency said first results showed the state-owned 2-ANP-1-RJS well has light oil measuring about 30 degrees API. Estimates of the 4.5 billion barrels equivalent reserves were further verified by Gaffney Cline & Associates, who conducted assessment studies in both Franco and Libra areas under the subsalt layer of Brazil's Santos basin. The Santos Basin is a 136,010-square-mile offshore region in the southern Atlantic Ocean about 190 miles southeast of Sao Paulo. The basin is the site of several significant oil fields, including Tupi and Jupiter, discovered in 2007 and 2008. Tupi was the largest oil discovery in the Americas since Mexico found Cantarell in 1976. Analysts said ANP would likely use state ownership of Franco to swap drilling production rights with shares in the state-managed Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. Since the large discoveries, Petrobras has embarked on ambitious plans to invest tens of billions of dollars into developing Brazil's oil production and export potential. Under new rules approved by Petrobras board, smaller investors will be able to use Treasury bonds as payment for new shares in a planned $25 billion offering, part of the company's financing program. Current plans calls for a total $224 billion investment in the oil industry expansion program through 2014. The government, which owns 56 percent of the voting stock in Petrobras, plans to buy shares with bonds. As part of the transaction, Petrobras will then sell the bonds back to the government in exchange for as much as 5 billion barrels of deep-water oil reserves. Meanwhile, Petrobras signed up Hill & Knowlton public relations agency to deal with the media in preparation for the launch of its deep-water sub-salt drilling. Although Petrobras sources said the hiring was part of a global marketing plan hatched before the Gulf of Mexico disaster, analysts said the scale of Brazil's planned deep-water drilling necessitated media management on a wider scale than originally thought.

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (137419)	7/14/2010 10:26:24 AM
From: ChanceIs	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 206325

RE: Hoover An excellent post. Russian Famine 1921 (see below) I think that few are aware that Hoover took a lead role in relieving the Russian famine. I think that he was sending food instead of advice to contract the ruble supply. (I have always felt that there was something very twisted about FDR in that America having pulled the Bolshevik's (Stalin) chestnuts out of the fire in 1921, and having watched Stalin ally himself with Hitler to divide Poland, he hadn't developed the greatest contempt and suspicion of Stalin and didn't let the Russians and Germans bleed each other white before stepping in to pick up the pieces. FDR certainly was suspicious of the Japanese.) WHAT's THE CURE? .... The cure is bankruptcies and foreclosures - liquidation of excessive private debts. An excellent point. I would add sarcastically that that would have been the case in 2008 before (almost) all private debts were made public (especially after Timmiy's Christmas Eve massacre wherein he made you and me effectively buy FNE/FRE's debt). I think that it is time for a public default. Any number of economists point out the parallel situation that today as in '32 or thereabouts, it is impossible for the government to create inflation and print its way out. So the stealthy way is not available. Best to be a man about it and just default. Speaking of default, I see that there is a movement afoot to raise the Social Security retirement age. ______________________________________ Russian famine of 1921 The Russian famine of 1921, also known as Povolzhye famine, which began in the early spring of that year, and lasted through 1922, was a severe famine that occurred in Bolshevik Russia. The famine, which killed an estimated 5 million, affected mostly the Volga-Ural region.[1][2][3] The international relief effort Although no official request for aid was issued, a committee of well-known people without obvious party affiliations was allowed to set up an appeal for assistance. In July 1921 the writer Maxim Gorky published an appeal to the outside world, claiming that millions of lives were menaced by crop failure. At a conference in Geneva on 15 August organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies, the International Committee for Russian Relief (ICCR) was set up with Dr Fridtjof Nansen as its High Commissioner. The main participants were Hoover's American Relief Administration, along with other bodies such as the American Friends Service Committee and the International Save the Children Union, which had the British Save the Children Fund as the major contributor.[6]