Last week, President Obama aggressively promoted the need for energy exploration — in China.

“Under the initiative, the U.S. and China will use experience gained in the United States to assess China’s shale gas potential, promote environmentally-sustainable development of shale gas resources, [and] conduct joint technical studies to accelerate development of shale gas resources,” the White House said in a statement. Obama’s boost for energy exploration in China comes three months after the U.S. government agreed to $2 billion in loans to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration in Brazil’s offshore Tupi oil field.