Petrobras looks for Chinese partners

摘要

Brazil's state-controlled Petrobras needs partners to help boost its domestic refin- ing capacity, which is falling increasingly short of fuel demand, a gap that is erod- ing the company's bottom line. China appears to be the latest target for an alliance, while putative regional partner Venezuela's state-owned PdV is struggling to foot its share of the bill for the first of Brazil's new refineries. Petro- bras faces "financial difficulty" in devel- oping the 600,000 b/d Premium 1 refinery and should team up with China's state- owned Sinopec to build it, Brazil's energy and mines minister Edison Lobao says. Premium 1 is one of several greenfield plants that Petrobras is building to close a gap between local demand and domestic refining capacity of about 2mn b/d.