Rio de Janeiro – In 2011, Petrobras should invest a total of 84.7 billion reals (US$ 54.4 billion), a volume 11% higher than the 76.4 billion reals (US$ 49.1 billion) invested in 2010, but lower than the 93 billion reals (US$ 59.8 billion) previously forecasted by the state-owned oil company for this year. The information was disclosed this Monday (25th) by the president of the company, José Sergio Gabrielli, while announcing details of the 2011/2015 Business Plan, which forecasts investment of US$ 224.7 billion (roughly 388.9 billion reals) during the period. The volume is US$ 700 million higher than the US$ 224 billion forecasted in the 2010/2014 Plan.
According to Gabrielli, even though projects equivalent to US$ 10.8 billion that were part of the previous plan have been removed, new projects worth US$ 32.1 billion have been included.
Under the new plan, the impact, on total investment, of the portfolio of projects maintained is as follows: US$ 8.6 billion increase due to exchange rate impact and US$ 1.5 billion increase as a result of budget revision; US$ 6.4 billion decrease due to the change in scope, US$ 23.7 billion decrease due to the change in projects’ timetables and US$ 0.6 billion decrease because of the change in business model.
Regarding new projects included in the plan, 87% of the investment will be dedicated to exploration and production, the bulk of which consists of investment pertaining to assignment for consideration (US$ 12.4 billion), comprising high revenue-generating projects, considering that the special share on the purchase of oil barrels has already been paid, and due to the synergies with the major discoveries in the pre-salt.
Petrobras’ 2011 oil and natural gas production target in Brazil has been maintained at 2.1 million barrels of oil per day, and the total oil and gas production target in Brazil and abroad, at 2.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
