Friday, January 11, 2008

Brazil's Oil Field Discovery - Why the Journalistic Comparisons to Bolivia and Venezuela?

I commented on this the first time around 2 months ago, but for those who missed it, the NY Times has an article up on Brazil's major oil-field discovery last year. It's detailed, going over the way and the investment involved in finding the field, the challenges facing Brazil to produce the oil in the field, and a comparison between Petrobras (the nationalized oil company in Brazil) and Bolivia and Venezuela. On the latter, I'm not quite sure why they include this. In one sense, it is useful in giving a broad comparison to the varieties of the ways in which nationalized oil works, showing it's complicated nature and not just relying on "Nationalized?? Why, they must be dirty, baby-killing COMMIES!!!" narrative. Still, at the same time, I also kind of feel like the comparison is done to say, "See? Brazil isn't as crazy or antagonistic as Chávez or Morales is!!" Anyhow, if you didn't know much about this discovery, check out the NY Times article.