Petrobras and PDVSA Finance Joint Refinery in Brazil

Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Petrobras have agreed to finance a joint refinery project in Brazil.

The state-controlled companies will build a 230,000bpd refinery at Abreu e Lima in the state of Pernambuco, in north-east Brazil.

The refinery which will cost R26bn ($16.4bn) to build will begin operations in 2013, reports Reuters.

PDVSA will present partial guarantees by August this year on a R10bn ($6.3bn) loan from BNDES, Brazilian Government foreign policy adviser Marco Aurelio Garcia said.