China wants to loan Brazil's state oil company $10 billion to help develop massive new oil fields in deep water off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's top energy official said in comments published Monday.
Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao also told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the United Arab Emirates has offered to develop fields, but he did not specify a price tag. Lobao said Chinese officials contacted his ministry to propose a loan and Petrobras then negotiated directly with the Chinese. He gave no details on the status of talks, and any deal would have to be approved by his ministry.
Petrobras, in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press, didn't confirm a China deal, but said the company has historically searched for "varied sources of financing" and that recent deals will be included in its new investment plan, expected in the coming weeks.
Lobao told the privately run Agencia Estado news agency other countries also wanted to participate: "It's not just China. It's a range of opportunities that Petrobras has." Lobao said the ministry has talked with a Japanese consortium, Canadian banks and various foreign oil service companies who want to invest in or work on offshore finds. He offered no other details.
Petrobras says it has discovered 50 billion to 80 billion barrels of reserves over the past year and is gearing up to spend hundreds of billions of dollars during the next 30 years to extract the light crude.
1 comment:
this is genius what Brazil is doing. 46% of their energy is alread from renewable sources while they have these oil reserves. So at the same time they are getting ahead start on energy efficiency they are still getting rid of their oil to fiends in China. Then that money can just go into more R&D for complete energy independence and in 75 years when most of oil is soaked up they will be WAY ahead of the curve.
Good post, very interesting
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