Thread: Brazil boosting state control in developing new oil fields

Brazil boosting state control in developing new oil fields

Profits to be used on social spending

ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:00 a.m. September 1, 2009

SAO PAULO, Brazil — [b]President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to exert more state control over immense offshore oil finds and funnel profits toward social spending, proposing new rules yesterday for foreign investors needed to tap deeply buried reserves.

The plan will significantly expand the state oil company's power over development of the fields and provide for a fund to help alleviate persistent misery and improve education and technology, Silva said.
He called Brazil's discovery of new reserves “a passport to the future,â€

If we had government controlled offshore drilling we could pay for the best health care for everyone with the profits. Instead the profits will go to corporations and big bonuses for the CEOs.