In a statement made yesterday, President Barack Obama said that, considering the crisis in North African and Middle Eastern countries, the United States hopes to strengthen ties with other petroleum-producing nations, and that this will be one of the topics discussed in his visit to Brazil next week. “When it comes to imported oil, we’re strengthening our key energy relationships with other producer nations, something that I will discuss with President Rousseff when I visit Brazil next week,” he affirmed.
Any and all discussions about oil are welcome, particularly with a partner like the United States, but in Brazilian energy policy, despite the importance of Petrobras and the pre-salt oil reserves, ethanol and biodiesel take priority in the search for alternative energy sources.
Thus, discussing energy with Barack Obama, in addition to secure sources of supply for the United States, is mainly a discussion of how to break down trade barriers for our ethanol in the U.S. market (our trade balance having more and more deficits) and how to discover together, through research in new technology, new sources of clean energy. In this area the United States and Brazil have many reasons to cooperate, for both nations are among the best suited to develop new energy sources.
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