Vitor Abdala
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - In a press release Petrobrás informed that its market value increased 70% this year in comparison with 2004. In the most recent evaluation, in November, the company was appraised at US$ 72 billion, as against US$ 42 billion last year.

According to the release, Petrobras is the world's eighth most valuable petroleum company and the most valuable in the sector in Latin America. The company attributes its success to advances in the areas of oil production, which attained record levels, and refining, which enabled it to improve the quality of its products.

Petrobras also rose 68 places in the Business Week magazine ranking, according to the release, and is 56th among the companies with greatest market value on the Standard & Poor's Global 1200 international list of publicly traded companies.

Translation: David Silberstein