Brazil's state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras said on Tuesday it is mulling plans to build a plant to refine liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Argentina or Uruguay.
Petrobras' foreign affairs director Jorge Zelada told a press conference here that the refinery will be designed to produce 5 million to 6 million cubic meters of natural gas per day for the region. Petrobras currently runs two LNG refining units in Brazil.
Zelada added the company does not rule out building LNG refineries in both Argentina and Uruguay.
Additionally, Zelada said Petrobras has not yet decided whether it will maintain its operations in Ecuador, adding that the company is trying to avoid losses in its operations in the country, whose government announced plans to increase royalties to 99 percent of oil and gas production.
Petrobras' Corporate Manager Paulo Cesar Aquino said the company, which used to pay royalties of 50 percent, currently pays90 percent, but its Ecuador operations have not registered losses yet, only a decline in profits.
The company has invested a total of 300 million U.S. dollars sofar in Ecuador, where it runs two exploitation blocks and is expected to invest 500 million to 600 million dollars more in 2008-2012, but the plan will be revised, Zelada said.
Zelada also said two of Petrobras' oil and gas fields in Nigeria are scheduled to go online this year.
The Agbami field, in which the company holds a 13-percent stake, will start operating in June, and is expected to produce 250,000 barrels of oil a day. The Akpo field, in which it holds a 20-percent stake, will come online in December, with a capacity to produce 200,000 barrels daily.
Petrobras' partners in both projects are U.S.-headquartered Chevron and French-headquartered Total.
Source:Xinhua
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