HOUSTON -- Alberto Guimaraes, president of Petrobras Americas Inc., the U.S. arm of Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras, said that the company is looking at more oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, more U.S. refining capacity, a bigger role in the domestic biofuels market and possibly even Petrobras-branded gas stations in the United States, reported The Houston Chronicle.
The South American oil giant is putting more emphasis than ever on the United States as part of an effort to expand its holdings outside Brazil, the report said. Over the next five years, Petrobras plans [image-nocss] to invest $4.9 billion in the United States. That's 10 times the company's five-year U.S. spending plan a decade ago, and accounts for about a third of what Petrobras will invest outside Brazil from 2008 to 2012.
"I am highly optimistic at how we're going to develop here," Guimaraes told the newspaper.
Most of Petrobras' upcoming investment is aimed upstream, at developing oil fields in deep-water regions of the Gulf of Mexico, said the report.
Midstream, the company, with partner Astra Holdings, is considering a plan to double the capacity of its 100,000-barrel-per-day U.S. refinery at the Houston Ship Channel, the report added. Petrobras owns 50% of the facility. If costs are too high, however, the partners could decide on a less ambitious upgrade that would enable the plant to process heavier crudes. In coming years, Petrobras aims to keep increasing its U.S. refining capacity, possibly by acquiring other plants, but only if the right opportunities arise, Guimaraes said.
Also, the company needs to develop U.S. logistics facilities that store and transfer oil and natural gas, he said. Downstream, Petrobras is starting to do market analysis for the introduction of its own branded gas stations in the United States, but is in "no hurry" to open stores, Guimaraes told the paper.
And he said he hopes that the company will become highly involved in biofuels in the United States. Brazil is well-known for the development of sugar-cane-based ethanol, which powers many of the cars there. But the U.S. restricts imports of Brazilian ethanol through a 53-cent-per-gallon tariff, the report said.
Guimaraes called for a "phase down" of the tariff, and for the creation of a government and oil industry coalition to study the best ways to incorporate ethanol into U.S. fuels, as well as strategies for ensuring adequate ethanol supplies in the future. "The ethanol industry in the United States should be a combination of local production, outside exporters bringing to the United States and eventually an exchange between different markets," he told the paper. "You have to go in that direction."
In the last two years, Petrobras has doubled the size of its U.S. workforce to 360. By next fall, the company will move into a new office building in west Houston. In the new office, Guimaraes said, there will be additional space to grow.
[CSP magazine examined the big picture of foreign investors coming into the convenience market in last November's issue. For a look at that article, click here.]
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