Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras' new five-year plan casts a more critical eye on the downstream, where delays and cost overruns are endemic and retail price controls have undermined its profitability over the past two years. The 230,000 b/d Abreu e Lima refin ery is now scheduled to come on stream in November 2014, three years behind schedule, and the cost has ballooned to more than $20bn, nine times its initial estimated cost. Few analysts believe Petrobras' insistence that Venezuela's state-run PdV will remain a 40pc partner in the project (WPA, 31 October, p11). But even if it does, the refinery faces a host of logistical challenges, not least of which will be securing electricity to operate.
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