Business | Oil & Gas
Channel Sponsor
Chavez's Brazil refinery plans unclear
Venezuela's government is prepared to provide billions of dollars to help build a Brazilian refinery that will process Venezuelan crude when it starts operating in 2010, President Hugo Chavez said.
- AP
- Published: 00:22 March 28, 2008
Recife, Brazil: Venezuela's government is prepared to provide billions of dollars to help build a Brazilian refinery that will process Venezuelan crude when it starts operating in 2010, President Hugo Chavez said.
But after he met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday, plans by the two nations for expanded energy co-operation - with the refinery as an example - seemed nebulous at best.
Reporters were called to a news conference for a joint declaration by the two leaders to outline their energy plans, only to be told later that they would make a statement later. Then the state-run oil companies of Brazil and Venezuela released details of an agreement on the refinery that only vaguely outlined such specifics as ownership and operation.
Brazil's Agencia Estado news service quoted an executive with state-run oil company Petrobras predicting it would take at least two months to sign a contract.
Investment
Chavez put the potential amount of Venezuelan investment in the refinery at $4 billion. But his declaration of that amount was confusing because Brazilian authorities have said the facility will cost $4.05 billion to build with a majority of the capital provided by Petrobras, which has already started construction.
Chavez did not elaborate while speaking with reporters at the airport in the northeastern city of Recife before heading on a tour of the refinery construction site with Silva. Brazil's Foreign Ministry could not immediately provide clarification, and Petrobras officials at the site of the meeting between Silva and Chavez provided no details.
Chavez and Silva three years ago laid the cornerstone for the refinery, which was originally to be funded 60 per cent by Petroleo Brasileiro SA, and 40 per cent by Petroleos de Venezuela SA.
But negotiations stalled over joint construction and operation, and last year Petrobras started to build the facility on its own without any Venezuelan capital.
The refinery is expected to process 200,000 barrels of oil daily initially, with half coming from Venez-uela and half from Brazil. Daily capacity could eventually rise to 400,000 barrels, Venezuela's official news service said.
Negotiators are also trying to finalise a deal involving Carabobo I, an extra-heavy oil field in Venez-uela's Orinoco Basin. Under a plan for its development, PDVSA would provide 60 per cent of the capital while Petrobras would supply 40 per cent.
Share this article
Popular in Business
-
Budget travel
Airlines in the region
Take a pictorial look at some of the budget airlines in GCC
Business Editor's choice
-
Credit swaps... a fair trade
Would you swap an unbuilt unit at the Lagoons for an apartment at JBR?
-
New face of safety
Volvo reveals a sleeker S60, ready to hit the roads early next year
-
When the Web lives worldwide
Cutting-edge firms are building massive data facilities all over the globe
