Rio de Janeiro – Petrobras plans on investing US$ 1.84 billion in expanding ethanol production capacity in the country until 2016. Ongoing expansion of plants Nova Fronteira/Boa Vista, Guarani, and Total will receive a combined US$ 1.05 billion of the total sum.
These projects should boost capacity from 1 billion litres of ethanol per year to 1.7 billion litres. Projects being assessed will receive US$ 800 million, increasing capacity to more than 7 billion litres per year.
Biodiesel should receive US$ 300 million in investment up until 2016, according to the 20121-2016 business plan.
More than US$ 13 billion will go to gas and energy projects, of which US$ 5.7 billion will go to gas-chemical processing projects. “One of the company’s priorities in coming years is the chemical processing of the gas in order to produce fertilizers. Two and a half billion dollars will be allocated to chemical processing of gas into fertilizers,” said the company’s Gas and Energy director Alcides Santoro.
The remainder of gas and energy investment will go to transport of the gas produced (US$ 2.3 billion), regasification projects (US$ 1.9 billion) and electricity generation (US$ 1.6 billion), among others. The company’s network expansion plans for thermoelectric production include projects such as the Baixada Fluminense Plant, due to enter into operation in late 2014.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
