Brazil Soros Eye Idle Gulf Deep Water Drilling Rigs: Drilling Moratorium Unintended Consequences?

The appalling news that Interior Secretary AND Barack Obama, changed a peer-reviewed document to suggest ways of improving deep water drilling this week, now makes sense. The Obama moratorium, against the advice of his panel of experts, will have unintended consequences...or, are the consequences intended? Is Obama clearing a path for deep water drilling rigs to move to Brazil - another perk for the Democrat's biggest donor, George Soros, after already giving him a $2 billion loan guarantee for the Soros investment in Brazilian Petrobras?

George Soros

The question now is, did Obama declare a moratorium, against the advise of his expert panel, to clear a path for deep water drilling rigs to move to Brazil - another perk for George Soros, after already giving him a $2 billion loan guarantee for the Soros investment in Brazilian Petrobras?

As I noted in my post about Salazar's willful deception, which he says Barack Obama participated in, the biggest news is the possibility of the drilling rigs being moved elsewhere around the globe, and rendering them unavailable to the U.S. for years. When the panel of experts signed off on Salazar's suggestions, the report did not advocate a moratorium. In fact, the experts were implicitly against a moratorium, for various reasons, but chief among them was losing our rigs.

It appears Brazil is eyeing our idle rigs.

Larwyn remembered that last summer, Obama gave George Soros a $2 billion loan guarantee to finance Brazil's Petrobras drilling, while Obama opposed any expansion of drilling off American shores. Most of us were outraged, but there is so much we are enraged about, we didn't put the pieces together. Larwyn did.

From Doug Ross:

Reuters reports ("Brazil sees silver lining in BP spill: more rigs") that the shuttered deep-water oil rigs will soon move to areas off the Brazilian coast.

Brazil could benefit from the BP Gulf of Mexico spill as a U.S. moratorium on offshore drilling boosts available rigs for the country's deep water oil exploration program.

Even as an ecological catastrophe makes the future of U.S. offshore drilling less certain, Brazil is plowing ahead with a $220 billion five-year plan to tap oil fields even deeper than BP's (BP.L) ill-fated Gulf well, which is still leaking crude.

With an estimated 35 rigs idled in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil is already receiving inquiries from companies looking to move their rigs here, where vast discoveries in recent years may soon turn the country into a major crude exporter.

... "Since operators are shutting down at least temporarily in the U.S. Gulf, some companies are planning to move their rigs to Brazil now," he said, without offering details.

...Brazilian officials, including government leaders and Petrobras executives, have said Brazil has no intention of slowing its offshore development as a result of the spill.

Regarding the impact of the moratorium, experts have described several certain outcomes:

• "Tens of thousands will lose their jobs"

• U.S. oil production could fall by 160,000 barrels of oil per day in 2011

• The marginal cost of offshore drilling will increase by 10% due to new regulations

From GatewayPundit:

But, not everyone will suffer.

Oil companies are planning on moving their rigs from the Gulf of Mexico to South America off the coast of Brazil where the government is more friendly to energy corporations.

Reuters reported, via Free Republic:

Brazil could benefit from the BP Gulf of Mexico spill as a U.S. moratorium on offshore drilling boosts available rigs for the country’s deep water oil exploration program. 

Even as an ecological catastrophe makes the future of U.S. offshore drilling less certain, Brazil is plowing ahead with a $220 billion five-year plan to tap oil fields even deeper than BP’s (BP.L) ill-fated Gulf well, which is still leaking crude. 

With an estimated 35 rigs idled in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil is already receiving inquiries from companies looking to move their rigs here, where vast discoveries in recent years may soon turn the country into a major crude exporter. 

“What is bad for some may be good for others,” said Fernando Martins, Latin America Vice President for GE Oil and Gas, which provides services to drillers in Brazil.

“Since operators are shutting down at least temporarily in the U.S. Gulf, some companies are planning to move their rigs to Brazil now,” he said, without offering details.

The Lonely Conservative has an informative article about Obama investing the U.S. in Brazil and Soros, dated August 2009.