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Petrobras Acquires Japanese Refinery to Expand Asian Energy Market
Comprehensive foreign news reports, Petrobras recently confirmed through its website that it plans to invest US$50 million to acquire 87.5% of the shares of Nansei Sekiyu K.K. Refinery in Okinawa, Japan, while Japan's Sumitomo Corporation controls the remaining 12.5% of the shares. Al, Petrobras' director of finance and investment Mir Barbasa said that this is Petrobras' first direct acquisition of a refinery in Asia, and it is an important part of Petrobras' strategy to expand overseas oil and gas. After that, Brazilian crude oil will be refined and processed in Japan into gasoline and other petroleum derivatives to be supplied to Japan. And Asian markets such as China.Barbasa pointed out that since most of the crude oil produced in Brazil is API international standard 18-20 degree heavy oil, which is 10-12 US dollars lower than the North Sea Brent crude oil futures price, processing its crude oil in Japan will help increase the price of Brazilian heavy oil in the international market. In addition, the refinery's acquisition transaction will also pave the way for its future international trade of sugarcane ethanol to a certain extent.
Petrobras analysts believe that the refinery is right between Japan, South Korea and China, and has a storage capacity of 9.6 million barrels of oil equivalent. It has three large tanker terminals with a berthing capacity of 97,000 tons and a large tanker terminal suitable for carrying capacity. A floating terminal for very large oil tankers with a capacity of 280,000 tons. With its superior geographical conditions and good oil storage capacity, the refinery is expected to become an ideal platform for Petrobras’ petroleum products to be exported to the Asian market.
The refinery acquired this time is owned by Japan's Tonen General, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Oil Company of the United States. The refinery is small in scale, with a daily crude oil processing capacity of only 100,000 barrels of equivalent, and the equipment is quite large. Aging, Petrobras also plans to invest US$885 million in upgrading refining equipment and renovating other infrastructure. It is expected to be put into operation in 2010.
The state-owned Petrobras’ business scope covers 27 countries and regions around the world. Its deep-sea crude oil mining and production technology ranks among the world’s leaders, with a daily crude oil processing capacity of approximately 1.92 million barrels. Petrobras’ net profit in the first three quarters of this year was US$9.405 billion. , down 21% from the same period last year. As of September this year, the company's market value was US$162.95 billion, a year-on-year increase of 50%. Brazilian Petroleum Company recently announced the discovery of a large oil mine with estimated reserves of 5 billion barrels to 8 billion barrels in the deep sea area of southeastern Brazil. Oil fields equivalent to more than 50% of Brazil's existing oil reserves.
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