MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras unveils ambitious bio-fuels expansion program

Brazil’s government managed oil and gas corporation Petrobras announced its bio-fuels business plan for 2009/2013 which involves 2.4 billion US dollars to increase the production of bio-diesel and ethanol, most of which to be sourced in Brazil.

This is part of the 2.8 billion USD Petrobras earmarked for bio-fuels business, which also includes 400 million US dollars in infra-structure, such as ethanol pipelines. Total resources represent an 87% increase compared to the previous Business Plan. Another 530 million US dollars will be invested in further bio-fuel research, basically from bio-mass residuals.

Of the 2.4 billion, 80% will be invested in ethanol, while 20% in bio-diesel. One of the company’s goals is to reach 2013 with production totalling 640 million litres of bio-diesel in Brazil. A new plant is expected to be built in Northern Brazil; a second plant will be transformed to double production and an experimental plant will be adapted for commercial production. Blue prints of new plants are also under consideration.

In association with Portugal’s Galp Energia the project for the annual production of 330,000 cubic meters of vegetable oil in Brazil, and 320,000 cubic meters of bio-diesel in Portugal is to be boosted and the deployment of bio-diesel production units in Africa is also under planning, said Petrobras.

Regarding ethanol Petrobras production goal is 1.9 billion litres by 2013, aimed at the foreign market, and 1.8 billion litres for domestic market. However the expansion will be undertaken through partnerships both in the domestic market and overseas. Petrobras is also considering a project to build an ethanol plant in Colombia, preferably with local partners.