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September 11, 2010
Despite President Obama’s moratorium on U.S. deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Export-Import Bank intends to guarantee $1 billion in loans to PEMEX, the Mexican state oil company, to bolster the company’s oil drilling in the region.
The bank, which is the official American export credit agency, loaned more than $1 billion to PEMEX in 2009 — when the company was the bank’s largest borrower — in support of its drilling activities. That year, the bank also guaranteed two loans totaling $300 million made by a commercial lender.
The latest request comes during a drilling moratorium that was first imposed by Obama in May to find out what was the cause behind the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP’s undersea well.
After a federal court struck down the ban amid complaints that it threatened thousands of jobs in the offshore oil industry, the Obama administration issued a new moratorium in July on most deep-water drilling activities that is in effect until Nov. 30.
The Export-Import Bank said the moratorium doesn’t affect its pending deal with PEMEX.
More…..
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ADD THIS:
Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling
Too bad it’s not in U.S. waters.
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.
Read more at link below:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html
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About Export-Import Bank
Board of Directors
INCLUDES:
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke
Board Member, ex officio
U.S. Trade Representative: Ambassador Ron Kirk
Board Member, ex officio
http://www.exim.gov/about/leadership/board.cfm
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From something we posted almost exactly one year ago, from Bloomberg:
Soros hedge fund invests $811m to buy Petrobras stake
August 15, 2008
London: Billionaire investor George Soros bought an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in the second quarter, making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company his investment fund’s largest holding.
As of June 30, the stake in Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based oil producer is known, made up 22 per cent of the $3.68 billion of stocks and American depositary receipts held by Soros Fund Management, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Petrobras has since slumped 28 per cent…
In November, Petrobras announced the discovery of Tupi, a field with as much as 8 billion barrels of reserves, making it the largest find in the Americas since 1976.
“Petrobras has something that other oil companies don’t have: oil – lots of it and they’re going to find more,” said Ricardo Kob-ayashi, equity fund manager with UBS Pactual in Rio de Janeiro…
Tupi is part of a new deepwater offshore region known as the pre-salt that may contain as much as 50 billion barrels, according to Peter Wells, oil analyst with the UK’s Neftex Petroleum Consultants.
The drop in Petrobras’ US-traded common shares since June 30 would have reduced the value of Soros’s disclosed stake by $235 million.
Soros Fund Management didn’t report holding any Petrobras shares at the end of the first quarter. It did disclose much smaller stakes in the Brazilian oil company during 2007, including 150,000 depositary shares, with a market value of about $17.3 million at December 31.
The hedge fund company also had calls on another 35,000 shares at December 31…
We certainly have learned that Mr. Obama is good at rewarding those who put him into office.
More…..
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EX-IM BANK 2010 ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Includes:
DEBBIE DINGELL
President
D2 Strategies
Dearborn, MI
Representing Manufacturing
WHO is Debbie Dingell?
Debbie Dingell is currently the President of D2 Strategies, and is Chair the Manufacturing Initiative of the American Automotive Policy Council. She is an active civic and community leader in both Michigan and Washington, D.C. and is a recognized national advocate for women and children. She recently completed a more than 30 year career at General Motors as a senior executive, where she headed the GM Foundation and public affairs. Mrs. Dingell has both a B.S.F.S. in Foreign Service and an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University.
Mrs. Dingell is also a national Democratic strategist, a member of the Democratic National Committee and has chaired numerous political campaigns. She currently chairs several boards, initiatives and committees and sits on numerous cultural, health, social services and civic boards in both Michigan and Washington, D.C. Much of her recent work has been focused on ethical issues and social responsibility as it relates to government and business. A known “bridge-builder,” she continues to promote and lead efforts toward greater understanding among the Detroit area’s Mideast community.
As a respected, bi-partisan voice, she is a regular contributor to the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, co-hosts “AM I Right” on the Detroit Public Television station, and is a regular roundtable Panel participant on Detroit’s WDIV’s “Flashpoint” as well as several other media programs in Michigan and Washington, D.C. She is included in Washingtonian’s 2009 100 most influential women in Washington, DC and Detroit Crain’s listing of the 100 most influential women in Michigan.
Mrs. Dingell is married to Congressman John Dingell of Michigan.
http://bog.wayne.edu/members/dingell.php
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Working Capital Guarantee Delegated Authority Lenders
Dated 9-1-10
For a list of authorized lenders go to this link :
http://www.exim.gov/pub/pdf/ebd-w-13.pdf
Were some of the banks listed bailed out by the TARP funds?
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So….to summarize:
1. The Export-Import Bank of the United States Government is part of the $1 Billion loan to Mexico to boost their oil drilling operation.
2. The same bank (Ex-Im Bank) is involved in the underwriting a $2 Billion dollar loan to Brazil for Petrobras Oil.
3. The Export-Import Bank ex-officio Board Members just SO HAPPEN to be
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke
AND
U.S. Trade Representative: Ambassador Ron Kirk /
4. On the Export-Import Bank, on the Advisory Board just SO HAPPENS to include Debbie Dingell.
Debbie Dingell is a Democratic strategist and is MARRIED to Democratic Congressman John Dingell of Michigan.
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Yet Obama can’t figure out WHY we are still in a Recession?
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WHY doesn’t someone ask Obama WHY…..GM (Government Motors) is building a plant in Mexico?
GM to build $500 million plant in Mexico
August 6, 2010
It’s just one hypocrisy after another from Barack Obama. The president sold the taxpayer bailout of General Motors by telling us that it was needed to save jobs. Obviously it doesn’t mean American jobs because Government Motors has decided to spend half a billion taxpayer dollars, to build a new plant
in Mexico.
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