MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras third largest traded corp. in the Americas

Brazil's government managed oil corporation Petrobras said on Tuesday that according to media reports it is now the third-largest publicly-traded company in the Americas.

With a market value of 295.6 billion US dollars, Petrobras now has surpassed Microsoft, which has a market value of 274 billion US dollars, Petrobras said in a release Monday night. ExxonMobil Corp. (489 billion) and General Electric Co. (320 billion) top the list. In the last twelve months Petrobras shares soared 110% compared to a 3.5% setback for Microsoft. Petrobras market value has quadrupled since 2004. GE which is the world's biggest provider of power-plant turbines, jet engines, medical imaging machines, aircraft leasing and locomotives, slumped the most in more than two decades early April after profit unexpectedly declined. The GE stock is down 15% this year. Petrobras said it is also the sixth-largest company by market value in the world, having recently surpassed the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., which has a market value of 289.3 billion. Petrobras only recently had surpassed Royal Dutch Shell PLC in market value to become the world's third-biggest publicly traded oil and gas company after Exxon and Russian gas producer OAO Gazprom, which also has significant oil production. Last April Petrobras announced the discovery of huge offshore oil and gas deposits in the pre-salt layer which could be one of the largest hits in recent years with estimated reserves of 33 billion barrels. Petrobras' average oil and natural gas production in Brazil reached 2,157,226 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe) in April, up 5.1% from a year ago and 2% above the 2,114,089 boe extracted last March. According to a company report Petrobras' daily production capacity is expected to grow an additional 500,000 barrels in 2008, when four more platforms begin operations, three of which in the Campos Basin and one in the Espírito Santo Sea. Furthermore, the five platforms that started producing in 2007 are also slated to reach their maximum capacities during the year. Natural gas domestic fields' production reached 50,064 million cubic meters per day, up 5.4% from the 43.375 million cubic meters of April 2007. Including all production, oil and gas, domestic and abroad, Petrobras output in April was equivalent to 2,381,045 boe per day, up 3.7% over April 2007, and 1.8% above March 2008.