Brazil's state-controlled gas and oil multinational Petrobras should end the year with an oil bill surplus, according to the company's Supply and Refining director, Paulo Roberto Costa, during the Rio Oil & Gas international fair.
According to Costa, the Petrobras is investing around US$ 8.5 billion in its refining park to improve the quality of fuel to allow greater production of diesel.
"Last month, the trade balance result was still negative, but we continue with consistent figures that point at an oil trade balance surplus. We are increasing production by at least 12,000 barrels of diesel a day, due to coke from Reduc (Duque de Caxias Refinery) and also in other units where there is being investment in the optimization of production of diesel, which has been showing results," stated Costa.
To this effort, pointed out the Petrobras director, may be added the increase of 1% biodiesel to the conventional diesel sold in Brazil starting on July 1st. This, he added, increased the mixture of the alternative fuel in to regular diesel to 3% – the so-called B-3.
The supply director of Petrobras said that the company also plans to prioritize the construction of refineries in the country to increase the company's refining capacity from the current 2 million barrels a day to 3.1 million over the next few years, when the company should be producing around 3.8 million barrels of oil.
Although the state-controlled company is still evaluating the market possibilities, Petrobras is no longer negotiating the purchase of the Valero refinery in Aruba, in the Caribbean, said Costa.
ABr
