MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras plans to invest 87 billion US dollars in five years

Brazilian government owned oil corporation Petrobras plans to invest 87 billion US dollars between 2007 and 2011 increasing energy production to 3.49 million barrels per day, which then should jump to 4.55 million bpd by 2015.

Target production figures include crude, condensates and natural gas.

An estimated 75 billion US dollars, 86% is to invested in Brazil and the rest in overseas projects, mainly focusing in exploration and production in West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico.

The new investment program extending to 2011 is 66% higher than the original five year 2006-2010 plan (56.4 billion US dollars) Petrobras announced in a statement to shareholders.

"Overall the 2007-2011 business plan maintains the company's aggressive growth goals", said Petrobras.

Petrobras which is the largest Brazilian company and a world leader in deep sea exploration is managed by the Brazilian government but lists its shares and bonds on the stock exchanges of New York, Madrid and Sao Paulo.

Last month President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed that in the near future Brazil would become a large crude exporter and join the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.

Lula also highlighted the "self-sufficiency" achieved by Petrobras, which now produces as much oil as Brazil consumes domestically, or approximately 1.8 million bpd.

Petrobras has proven oil and natural gas reserves equivalent to more than 11 billion barrels. Of the company's reserves, some 10.57 billion barrels are in Brazil and about 1.25 billion in eight other countries where Petrobras operates.

Petrobras plans are based on declining world international prices for oil taking the Brent crude as a reference, which should average 66 US dollars this year but 35 US dollars per barrel by 2009.