MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian environmental regulators will join state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in appealing an injunction that halted work on a major USD8 billion Comperj refinery project in Rio de Janeiro state, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Petrobras, Inea and federal environmental regulator Ibama will appeal the decision together, said Marilene Ramos, president of Rio state environmental regulator Inea.
Earlier Petrobras said it had been informed that a federal judge suspended environmental licenses granted by Inea for the refinery under construction in Rio de Janeiro state. According to Ms. Ramos, the judge ruled that Ibama had jurisdiction over licensing the project, forcing a halt in construction until Ibama issued new licenses.
The suspension stems from a case brought by federal prosecutors in 2008 that regulators thought had been resolved in 2009, Ms. Ramos said.
Petrobras said that it was evaluating all possible measures related to the halt, which would stop work on one of the company's largest projects.
The Comperj refinery will have installed capacity to process 165,000 barrels of crude oil per day when it enters operation in April 2015, according to the company. A second phase, expected to be completed by 2018, would double capacity.
When completed, the refinery would ease Petrobras's dependence on expensive fuel imports that have undercut the company's profits over the past two years.
We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, Petrobras kept its five-year investment plan flat for the first time in years. Petrobras' new investment plan is a relief to those investors who'd feared another increase. Petrobras has one of the largest investment budgets of any firm in the world at USD236.7 billion for the next five years, as it seeks to develop some of the biggest oil discoveries the world has found in decades.
Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in the Southern Hemisphere by market capitalization and the largest in Latin America measured by 2011 revenues.
MRC