Petroleo Brasileiro SA said it may more than double its borrowings from the U.S. Export-Import Bank to as much as $5 billion, following a $10 billion loan from China.
Petrobras, as the state-controlled oil company is known, may increase the loans from $2 billion now,

Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa said today at a press conference
in Rio de Janeiro. The initial loan made in April was an “opening
amount,” Fred Hochberg, president of the U.S. bank, said earlier today
in an interview in Rio.
“The Export-Import Bank met yesterday with Petrobras, and it offered
more resources to the company,” Brazilian Energy Minister Edison Lobao
said at the press conference.  Investment in Brazil’s oil industry is
expected to surge to more than $200 billion over the next five years,
buoyed by spending on the Americas’ largest oil find since 1976.
Petrobras in February secured $10 billion in financing from the China
Development Bank Corp.  China replaced the U.S. as Brazil’s biggest
trading partner this year, after the global recession choked sales to
the U.S. The Chinese bank, which plans to open an office in Rio de
Janeiro next year, has also agreed to lend $800 million to Brazil’s
state development bank, known as BNDES.
The U.S. and Chinese loans will help Petrobras pay for part of its $174 billion, five-year investment plan to expand output.
High Priority  Hochberg, in his first trip abroad since being named to
the post by President Barack Obama in April, said the administration
places a high priority on its relationship with Latin America’s largest
economy. The Export-Import Bank has helped finance Brazil’s development
since 1940, when it made a loan for $25 million to help build the
country’s first steel mill at Volta Redonda.
Prior to the Petrobras loan, Brazil had $2.3 billion in outstanding
loans from the bank. Lending to Petrobras may surpass the almost $5
billion in financing to Mexico’s state- owned Petroleos Mexicanos,
Hochberg said.
Opportunity  “I think the opportunity here is even greater,” he said.
During his three-day visit to Brazil, Hochberg said he met with
officials from Petrobras; Vale SA, the world’s biggest iron-ore
producer; and the nuclear power unit of state- controlled Centrais
Eletricas Brasileiras SA.
Energy cooperation with Brazil will be a “centerpiece” of future
bilateral ties, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, the top
U.S. diplomat for Latin America and Obama’s choice to be the next
ambassador to Brazil, said in written testimony to the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee this month.
Total new loans by the U.S. Export-Import Bank will likely top $20
billion for the first time in the fiscal year through Sept. 30,
Hochberg said, adding that he expects another record next year.  “We’re
not seeing demand fall,” Hochberg said. “Two or three months ago, we
had a lower forecast for loans this year and we are each month
increasing that expectation.”  The Export-Import Bank, the World Bank,
China’s export lender and other government-supported agencies are
ramping up their financing for exporters, as the World Trade
Organization estimates a 9 percent drop in trade this year.  Petrobras
also said today it signed a 25 billion-real ($13.3 billion) loan with
BNDES that will be repaid in 19 years and 8 months. The first payment
is scheduled for September 2016.  Petrobras CFO Barbassa said today
that the company’s cash- generation will be greater than forecast with
oil prices at current levels.

Source: Bloomberg

Search to find what you want

• Petrobras and PDVSA agree with the terms to build refinery

    PETROBRAS announces that it has agreed with Petr?leos de Venezuela S.A – PDVSA the conditions to incorporate a special purpose company to build and operate the Abreu e Lima Refinery, with 60%? participation of Petrobras and 40% of PDVSA.

• Petrobras Surges Fifth World s Largest Company on oil rally

    Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer, surpassed China Mobile Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp. this week to become the world’s fifth-largest company by market value. Petrobras’s market capitalization rose to 353.9 billion reais ($208 billion) as the company’s preferred shares gained 2.7 percent since Oct. 9 and common shares added

• U.S. government to the Brazilian Petrobras loan 10 billion U.S. dollars

     The U.S. government is preparing to provide up to $10 billion in loans to finance the development of massive hydrocarbon reserves off Brazil’s coast thought to contain 80 billion barrels of high-quality crude, an amount that could lead to a six-fold increase in Brazil’s current proven reserves and transform that nation

• Farstad Shipping announces new charter agreements

     Petrobras, Brazil, has contracted PSV Far Supporter (1996, UT 750, 4.680 DWT) for a period of 3 years, with start up during the 1st quarter 2010.

• Brazil offshore oil fields, all in local waters: official

    The massive oil reserves found off Brazil under a geological layer of salt all lie within Brazilian waters, the head of the country’s top oil company Petrobras said on Friday. The “pre-salt area is in Brazilian waters,” Petrobras chief executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli told a press conference in London. Brazil

• Petrobras receives license for the LNG terminals in Guanabara Bay

    Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has received an operating license for its 14 cu m/day LNG regasification terminal at Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro state. Rio de Janeiro’s Environmental Institute Inea issued the license, which also includes approval for a pipeline connecting the terminal and the future compression station in Campos Eliseos,

• Petrobras agrees with the recruitment of vessels

     Petrobras announces that during a meeting held on 12/03, it approved the chartering of twelve of the nineteen vessels foreseen in the program called EBN (Empresas Brasileiras de Navega??o, or Brazilian Shipping Companies).

• Petrobras Finds 25 million barrels of oil in Brazil

    Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, said it found about 25 million barrels of recoverable oil in shallow waters of the nation’s Campos Basin. Production at the 4-PM-53 oil well will start this year, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said today in a regulatory filing

• Brazil Petrobras oil production slipping 0.7 percent in January

    Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petrobras said on Wednesday crude output in Brazil in January slipped 0.7 percent compared to the month earlier as it performed maintenance in the offshore Campos Basin. Production in Brazil was 1.973 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, Petrobras said in a press release, compared

• Brazil Petrobras to fall

    Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, costs have “fallen less than expected,” company president Jose Sergio Gabrielli said. “In some areas we’ve seen sharp falls but in general the reduction wasn’t as much as we had hoped for,” Gabrielli said during a press conference to mark the

• To convince Brazil to superpower oil over the next ten years

    Edison Lobo said this week that thanks to the vast potential of its pre-salt region, so-named because the estimated 50-80 billion barrels of oil equivalent it contains are located in the sea bed beneath an unstable salt formation, Brazil could produce some 3.8 million barrels per day within 10 years,

• Petrobras to launch a tender for 28 oil platforms in September

    Brazil’s state-run Petrobras this month will launch a bid round on 28 oil rigs to be built in Brazil and used for massive offshore subsalt fields, the company said. Brazil plans to rely mostly on locally manufactured equipment to pump crude from deep-sea subsalt fields, part of President Luiz Inacio Lula da

• Petrobras plans Fleet drill ships

    Shunning a global shipyard tender process, the executive board of Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras recently approved a plan to charter up to 28 new offshore drilling rigs that will be built in Brazil. The plan, which could start this month, calls for the rigs, which will have increased domesticl content,

• Petrobras plans Fleet drill ships

    Shunning a global shipyard tender process, the executive board of Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras recently approved a plan to charter up to 28 new offshore drilling rigs that will be built in Brazil. The plan, which could start this month, calls for the rigs, which will have increased domesticl content,

• Korean Shipmakers look at 20 billion U.S. dollars Deal Brazil

    Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras has revealed a plan to order 28 drill ships worth US$20 billion to a visiting Korean trade delegation. Meeting with representatives from Korea’s four leading shipmakers in South Gyeongsang Province as well as the governor of the province, Kim Tae-ho, the oil giant said it wants to