Lula: US May Covet Brazil's Oil Wealth  

Stuff.co.nz reports the revival of the US Fourth Fleet after 58 years of inactivity has South Americans concerned the US may try a repeat of its grab for Iraq's oil - New fleet may mean US covets Brazil's oil - Lula.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned that the resurrection of a US naval fleet in Latin America may signal that Washington covets huge new oil reserves off Brazil's coast.

The US Navy is re-establishing the US Fourth Fleet, which was decommissioned 58 years ago, to combat drug trafficking, provide disaster relief and help with peacekeeping missions in Latin America and the Caribbean. But the return of the fleet has been met with widespread scepticism in Brazil and elsewhere in the region, where many see a US military presence as a threat to sovereignty.

"The (Brazilian) Navy plays an important role in protecting our subsalt reserves, because the men of Fourth Fleet are almost there on top of the subsalt areas," Lula said in a speech inaugurating a new oil platform in southern Brazil. "Our Navy has to be the guardian of our offshore oil platforms to protect our patrimony, because before you know it some wise guy will come along and say: 'This is mine, it's at the bottom of the ocean anyway, so it's mine."'

Since state-run energy company Petrobras surprised the oil world last November by announcing the world's second-biggest oil find in 20 years, conspiracy theories have abounded in Brazil that a foreign power might try to snatch the country's offshore oil wealth.