Coup hands over pre-salt reserves for free at the peak of the oil market.

247 - The surge in oil prices on the international market continues. A barrel is already trading at US$80, and experts don't rule out it reaching US$100 in 2019. This seems to be the beginning of a new golden age for oil, after oil prices plummeted in 2014 under the weight of shale production in the US. But Brazil will be left out of the party, because the coup government is handing it over for free to the major international oil companies.

"The long era of cheap oil is over" is the title of a report in the British newspaper Financial Times. Several factors explain the price increase, from production restrictions by major producers to difficulties in shale oil exploration in the US, to international tension caused by Donald Trump, who threatens to ignite the Middle East, the world's largest oil-producing region. With the price increase, all producing countries benefit. It is hoped that Venezuela, which is facing a severe economic crisis, can begin a recovery process. Only Brazil is left out, as the government that came to power through the coup is liquidating the pre-salt reserves.

 The conservative press is confusing people by uncritically reporting the figures related to the pre-salt auctions promoted by the Temer-Parente duo. They all amount to billions of dollars. In the last auction, on March 29th, R$ 8 billion was raised. However, while the price of a barrel of oil soars towards US$ 100, oil companies are acquiring the auctioned areas with an estimated cost per barrel of around US$ 1. 

When the pre-salt oil reserves were discovered in 2006 and then-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced a revolutionary program to develop their exploration and make Brazil self-sufficient and an exporter, the right wing and the conservative press ridiculed him, claiming that the extraction costs would be prohibitive and that the discovery was a huge "flop." To give you an idea... the impact of the pre-saltIn 2007, Brazil (under Lula's government) celebrated self-sufficiency in oil production with a yield of 1,77 million barrels per day. Today, the pre-salt reserves alone produce the same amount, 1,74 million barrels per day, representing 53,3% of Brazil's total production. In two years, it will be 75% or more. 

But Brazilians will see no benefit. The billions raised in the auctions are destined almost exclusively for banks and rentiers, to pay the financial merry-go-round of public debt interest, while the profit from the exploitation remains with the large international companies.

It is a crime against the nation, as former President Dilma Rousseff stated in an interview with... TV 247:

"We created the pre-salt model, which is based on profit sharing. What is profit sharing? The largest share of the oil, the most important part, belongs to the Brazilian state. Therefore, to the Brazilian people. The smaller share goes to the explorers. In the profit sharing model, it's roughly: 70% for the Union and 30% for the companies. (...) The pre-salt model was designed so that Brazil could make the most of its natural resources, which now, with the change promoted by Michel Temer, end up in the hands of foreign explorers." 

Dilma also spoke of the threat to Brazil's future posed by handing over oil to large international oil companies and the resources collected for Brazil's wealthy, instead of being directed towards what would be a true social revolution:

"The revenue-sharing model had a social component. The largest share, around 75%, went to education and around 25% to health. It was a kind of passport to the future, which the concession model doesn't have. (...) Education works for the future and for the wealth of the country. The nation becomes richer if you invest in education." 

Watch Dilma's interview again: