Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling

George Soros Cut Petrobras Stake in Second Quarter (Update2)
By Saijel Kishan and Andres R. Martinez

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire George Soros cut his stake in his biggest holding, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, in the second quarter while buying more shares of other energy producers.

His New York-based hedge-fund firm, Soros Fund Management LLC, sold 22 million U.S.-listed common shares of Petrobras, as the Brazilian oil company is known, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Soros bought 5.8 million of the company?s U.S.-traded preferred shares.

Soros is taking advantage of the spread between the two types of U.S.-listed Petrobras shares, said Luis Maizel, president of LM Capital Group LLC, which manages about $4 billion. The common shares were 21 percent more expensive than preferred today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

?He knows he held a voting right in the common shares that would never translate to actual power,? Maizel said in an interview from San Francisco. ?He?s just playing the spread.?

Petrobras preferred shares have also a 10 percent additional dividend, said William Landers, a senior portfolio manager for Latin America at Blackrock Inc.

?Given that there will most likely never be a change in control in the company, I see no reason to pay a higher price for the common shares.? Brazil?s government controls Petrobras and has a majority stake of voting shares.

Hess Stake

Soros boosted his stake in oil company Hess Corp. to 5.1 million shares as of June 30 from 3.7 million at the end of the first quarter, according to the filing. Hess was Soros?s second- largest holding. He also added to stakes in Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. and bought shares in Calgary-based Suncor Energy Inc. and InterOil Corp. in Sydney.

Soros?s company oversees about $24 billion. His Quantum Endowment Fund returned 9.3 percent in the second quarter. Hedge funds gained an average of 9.1 percent during the period, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc. in Chicago. The filing doesn?t reflect the Soros?s holdings in cash or other securities.

Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Soros, declined to comment on the holdings.

Soros cut his stake in Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., selling 4 million shares of the fertilizer producer while investing in Monsanto Co., the world?s largest seed producer.

Money managers who oversee more than $100 million in equities must file a Form 13F within 45 days of each quarter?s end to list their U.S.-listed stocks, options and convertible bonds. The filings don?t show non-U.S. securities or how much cash the firms hold.

Soros?s biggest sale in the second quarter was his stake in ConocoPhillips, the second-largest U.S. refiner after he sold 4 million shares. The hedge fund also sold its stake in Macy?s Inc., the second-biggest U.S. department-store chain.

"ridenrain" said
.. and the punch line:

Isn't it a strange coincidence that Obama-supporter Soros would reposition himself within Petrobras to receive dividends just days before Obama's $2 billion in loans and guarantees for the country's offshore drilling operations?

Today's Wall Street Journal contains some puzzling news for all Americans who are impacted by high energy prices and who share the goal of moving us toward energy independence.

For years, states rich with an abundance of oil and natural gas have been begging Washington, DC politicians for the right to develop their own natural resources on federal lands and off shore. Such development would mean good paying jobs here in the United States (with health benefits) and the resulting royalties and taxes would provide money for federal coffers that would potentially off-set the need for higher income taxes, reduce the federal debt and deficits, or even help fund a trillion dollar health care plan if one were so inclined to support such a plan.

So why is it that during these tough times, when we have great needs at home, the Obama White House is prepared to send more than two billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to Brazil so that the nation's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, can drill off shore and create jobs developing its own resources? That's all Americans want; but such rational energy development has been continually thwarted by rabid environmentalists, faceless bureaucrats and a seemingly endless parade of lawsuits aimed at shutting down new energy projects.

I'll speak for the talent I have personally witnessed on the oil fields in Alaska when I say no other country in the world has a stronger workforce than America, no other country in the world has better safety standards than America, and no other country in the world has stricter environmental standards than America. Come to Alaska to witness how oil and gas can be developed simultaneously with the preservation of our eco-system. America has the resources. We deserve the opportunity to develop our resources no less than the Brazilians. Millions of Americans know it is true: "Drill, baby, drill." Alaska is proof you can drill and develop, and preserve nature, with its magnificent caribou herds passing by the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), completely unaffected. One has to wonder if Obama is playing politics and perhaps refusing a "win" for some states just to play to the left with our money.

The new Gulf of Mexico lease sales tomorrow sound promising and perhaps will move some states in the right direction, but we all know that the extreme environmentalists who serve to block progress elsewhere, including in Alaska, continue to block opportunities. These environmentalists are putting our nation in peril and forcing us to rely on unstable and hostile foreign countries. Mr. Obama can stop the extreme tactics and exert proper government authority to encourage resource development and create jobs and health benefits in the U.S.; instead, he chooses to use American dollars in Brazil that will help to pay the salaries and benefits for Brazilians to drill for resources when the need and desire is great in America.

Buy American is a wonderful slogan, but you can't say in one breath that you want to strengthen our economy and stimulate it, and then in another ship our much-needed dollars to a nation desperate to drill while depriving us of the same opportunity.

- Sarah Palin

"PublicAnimalNo9" said
Ya know, if the US spent on R&D for alternative fuel sources what it's cost them to run a war in Iraq, that we alllll know was about oil and nothing but, they would have already been able to significantly reduce their need for the shit. New jobs could have been created and infrastructure could have already been being put into place for these new technologies. Any jobs lost in the oil industry could easily be replaced with jobs in the alternative fuels industry.
If there's one thing the US has shown over the years, if it REALLLLLY wants to do something, then by gum, it's gonna get done. I don't mean that in a negative, 'go to war and take your stuff' way, I mean a real accomplishment.

But if the reaction to health care reform in the US is any indication of the resistance to changes in the status quo, I don't see them getting off the fossil fuel teat anytime soon.

"PublicAnimalNo9" said

But if the reaction to health care reform in the US is any indication of the resistance to changes in the status quo, I don't see them getting off the fossil fuel teat anytime soon.

"ridenrain" said
.. and your fine with that?

"Pseudonym" said
I'll grant that this, while suspicious, does not constitute any proof of conspiracy or payback from the Democrats to Soros. I'm not sure what constitutes legal and illegal in the realms of insider information. Presumption of innocence and all that.

HOWEVER, I am that they are loaning $2 billion to a foreign, state-owned, oil company, on top of not allowing further exploitation of domestic resources. That is utter bullshit, and as it is a policy decision, not a legal matter, I feel completely justified in saying so.