Chevron in talks to purchase Petrobras’ Texas refinery

Oil and gas producer Chevron has reportedly held discussions with Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras to acquire the latter’s oil refining unit in Texas, US.

The acquisition of Pasadena Refining System (PRSI), which is located on 468 acres of land along the Houston Ship Channel, will add refining capacity of 110,000bbl/d of light crude to Chevron, Reuters reported citing unnamed sources.

The development comes at a time when US oil firms are considering increased refining capacity to accommodate rising shale production in the country.

Petrobras has been focused on meeting its asset divestment target of $21bn by year-end.

A fire broke out in the refinery’s coking unit in December 2011. Since then, operations at one of the processing units have remained shut.

If the deal goes through, Chevron will have to invest to upgrade the refinery, one of the sources told the news agency. The facility comprises open land, which can be used for future further expansion.

Since 2006, Petrobras has invested in excess of $1.18bn into refinery operations. Earlier this year, the firm began seeking buyers for the facility.

Earlier this month, Chevron downstream and chemicals head Pierre Breber told Reuters that the company was looking for either building or purchasing a refinery along the US Gulf Coast to process oil from its West Texas operations.

Having a refinery in Houston will allow the company to process the crude closer to where it is produced.

Meanwhile, Chevron is also engaged in talks to establish a joint venture with energy infrastructure company Kinder Morgan for processing gas liquids, sources told the news agency.