Petrobras participates in an event on biofuels in Houston

Petrobras will participate, in the Biofuels Houston Summit III, a conference held annually in Houston, Texas (USA), to debate scenarios and opportunities in the biofuels sector. The trends in the Brazilian ethanol industry, the challenges to be faced to open the global market to ethanol, agriculture aimed at biofuel production, and the perspectives for the biodiesel market, among other issues, will be discussed in this year’s edition of the event.

Today (Monday, 10/20), the president and CEO of Petrobras, José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, delivered a speech on the Company’s performance and perspectives in biofuels.

The Biofuels Houston Summit is organized by the Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce and by the Brazilian Oil, Gas, and Biofuels Institute (IBP). Brazilian and American executives and authorities attend the event.

Petrobras and Biofuels

Petrobras is an integrated energy company with an important performance in the biofuels sector. Last July, the Company launched Petrobras Biocombustível, its subsidiary in charge of developing ethanol and biodiesel production and management projects.

In the ethanol segment, the Company created a business model that searches for partnerships with international companies holding markets for exports, and with Brazilian ethanol producers who already perform in the sector. The goal is to reach, by 2012, annual production and exports of 4.75 billion liters of ethanol.

In 2008, two biodiesel production plants were inaugurated in Northeastern Brazil: one in Candeias, in the state of Bahia (the first commercial production of which was delivered on October 3), and the other in Quixadá, state of Ceará. A third unit is scheduled to kick-off operations late this year in Montes Claros, in the state of Minas Gerais (Southeastern Brazil). Together, the three plants will have a total production capacity of 170 million liters of biodiesel per year. The goal is to reach leadership in Brazilian biodiesel production, producing 938 million liters of the product per year, by 2012.

The feedstock for these plants will come primarily from family farming, generating jobs and income on the farmland, according to Petrobras’ priority of pursuing economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Petrobras currently counts on a network of 55,000 farmers, who are producing a part of the oleaginous plants the plants use.