BRASIL: Investors Wary Of Government's Role In Petrobras.

REUTERS/NYTIMES/     Foreign investors are questioning Petrobras' ability to withstand the government’s designs to use the oil giant for social policies. Reuters and the NYTimes try to explain the confusing details about a new stock offering.
"Investors know that the government will endow Petrobras with about five billion extra barrels of oil — a big lift to current proven reserves of about 15 billion barrels. What they don’t know is how many shares the government will expect in return. Estimates of how much Petrobras will pay go as high as $10 a barrel of reserves, a price that would equate to a $50 billion transfer of value from the company to the state.
Whatever the case, a dilution of minority shareholders appears inevitable."
AND..."The suspicion is that Petrobras is creeping away from its core competency as a deep-water exploration and production pioneer to satisfy government desires to create jobs through the inefficient building and operation of refineries."