Alana Gandra
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - Petrobras expects to close the 2005 exercise having processed a daily average of around 1.8 million barrels of petroleum. This estimate comes from the company's director of Supply, Paulo Roberto Costa. He hopes to receive the final data on overall demand for each of the company's products by January 15. With the information presently available, however, he believes that last year's target of a 2.6-2.8% increase in relation to 2004 will not be met.

Contributing to this disappointing outcome were the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (the total wealth produced in the country), which "came in below the initial forecast," and crop losses, mainly in southern Brazil, which reduced the demand for petroleum derivatives, especially diesel oil, Costa commented.

Petrobras expected that consumption of products such as diesel oil and gasoline would increase in 2005, that it would remain stable for cooking gas, naphtha, and airplane fuel, and that it would decline for fuel oil, which is being replaced by natural gas.

The expectation for the 2005 exercise is also one of reduced demand for and importation of petroleum derivatives, as a result of the start-up of operations at the Paulínia refinery's (Replan) second coke unit. With a capacity to produce 5 thousand cubic meters, the activity of the new unit means an additional 30 thousand barrels processed daily. "This coke provided a big boost to the expansion of Brazilian petroleum processing and certainly helped the company reduce imports of petroleum derivatives," leading to an increase in petroleum exports, the director said.

The preliminary goal for 2006 is to grow around 2.6%. However, there are plans to revise the programming for the next five years, he observed.

Translation: David Silberstein