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 Brazil's government-controlled oil company Petrobras announced plans to invest 112 billion US dollars in production, exploration and related activities in Brazil and overseas during the next five years.
Petrobras president José Sérgio Gabrielli said US$ 65 billion will go into exploration and production and the bulk of investments, US$ 97 billion are to be spent in Brazil and US$ 15 billion overseas.
However, although the investments detailed under the 2008-2012 plan represent an increase of 29% over the 87.1 billion in the 2007-2011 plan announced last year, the company set production targets lower.
Petrobras said it expected oil and gas output in Brazil to rise to 3.455 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2015, while the previous plan placed 2014 overall output at 4.556 million barrels a day. But the company gave no reason for the lower production targets.
Petrobras aims to refine 2.061 million barrels a day in 2012, hoping to use 90% of Brazilian oil in its domestic refineries. That is up from 1.746 million barrels a day in 2006. In 2015, Petrobras aims to process 2.659 million barrels a day in Brazil.
Including overseas refineries, Petrobras aims to process 2.409 million barrels a day in 2012, and 3.007 million barrels a day in 2015. That is up from a total of 1.871 million barrels a day processed in 2006.
Petrobras underlined that most of the planned investment, some 104 billion US dollars, will come out of its current resources.
In bio-fuels, Petrobras wants to lead the Brazilian production of bio-diesel, widen its participation in ethanol and become a global player in biofuels trading.
Gabrielli also announced a strategic plan to make Petrobras one of the five biggest integrated energy companies of the world by 2020. Petrobras leading position target has so far been limited to Latinamerica.
"The company intends to rank among the world's five largest - and one of the favorites - in the field of integrated energy by 2020", confirmed Gabrielli.
"We will compete with the private sector, because we do not yet need government support to compete. Obviously, once we affect private interests, we will be accused of being state protected. We are acting as a competitive company, in a competitive environment, defined by the Brazilian Petroleum Bill".
However the president of the Federation of Industries from the State of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan), Eduardo Eugênio Gouvêa Vieira, criticized the possibility of the oil sector being dominated by the state-owned company, especially in the petrochemical field.
"Petrobras is centralizing, and this issue must be discussed by Congress. Petrobras has a larger share now than it did in 1992. It owns 40% of the largest company in the sector, which is Braskem, and now it bought Suzano. Thus, it dominates the petrochemical market, in terms of percentage", he insisted.
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Do you think that this push for more energy investment might lead to more nuclear reactors in Brasil? I think it is a great option for some regions. It would be nice to see some investment in that area instead just oil and gas. Both air polluters and exhaustible resources. Would like to hear Brasilians views...