Venezuela, Brazil to jointly operate refinery By IANS Friday December 14, 04:24 PM
Caracas, Dec 14 (IANS) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have agreed to jointly build and operate a refinery in northeastern Brazil as part of bilateral energy cooperation.
PDVSA of Venezuela and Petrobras of Brazil will create a ‘mixed enterprise’ to construct a refinery in the Pernambuco region with the capacity to process 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, EFE news agency quoted Chavez as saying Thursday.
The accord also includes a commitment by Caracas to supply Brazil 100,000 bpd (barrels per day) of crude oil from a field in Venezuela’s Orinoco belt that is operated jointly by PDVSA and Petrobras, he added.
Petrobras began work on the $4-billion refinery project in Pernambuco on Sep 4.
Venezuela, a founding member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is among the world’s top exporters of crude oil. The Andean nation also has large reserves of natural gas.
