Brazil Knows Oil

From thestreet.com 7/7/08

Ten years ago, I was in Brazil for a commodities conference, and I had a great opportunity to meet with some petroleum producers and refiners. It was clear that Brazil was getting its act together.
The oil industry was growing, and money was being spent on exploration and development of new oil fields. I realized that the Brazilian oil industry was worth watching.
The Brazilians are very forward-looking and are willing to spend big to produce more oil. They realized then and now that the world was going to need more oil. They were willing to spend some serious real on insuring their place in the global oil picture.
On a Saturday afternoon, I had some free time and went to Ipanema beach in Rio De Janiero. It was a sandy tropical beach with beautiful people everywhere. While sitting there, a kid came up to my beach chair and began showing me how he made a souvenir with wood and leather. He was very animated, and I found him amusing so I bought the thing for a few U.S. dollars.
It wasn't until a few minutes later that I realized he had an accomplice who had reached under my beach chair and lifted my bag. I got fooled by the old "look over here" scam. I had some money and nonsense in there, nothing to get too fired up about. I chalked it up to being a gringo in a place fairly unfriendly to gringos........................
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