14:03 DJS Itochu, Mitsubishi, Petrobras To Lead Oil Project Off Brazil's Co
14:03 DJS Itochu, Mitsubishi, Petrobras To Lead Oil Project Off Brazil's Coast
TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Itochu Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp. will head a
consortium of Japanese, European and U.S. banks and Brazil's national oil
monopoly Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, to exploit oil off the coast of
Rio de Janeiro State, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Saturday
morning edition.
The move - which will cost more than $2 billion - represents a shift of
trading companies' overseas business focus to Latin America from Asia, which
has been plagued by an economic crisis. The partners plan to begin daily
production of 200,000 barrels of crude oil in 2004.
Petrobras holds an interest in the 249-square-kilometer field, which
lies 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of Campos. Reserves are estimated
at the second largest in Brazil at 485 million barrels.
The two trading companies will set up a new firm by the end of this
year with start-up capital of about $100 million. It will own and manage
facilities for the project, including offshore rigs.
The rest of the funding will be extended by government-affiliated
financial institutions in Japan and Brazil and the banking consortium, which
includes Industrial Bank of Japan, Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) of the U.S. and
Paribas SA of France.
Copyright (c) 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
(:E.PTB) (:F.CBA) (:F.PBS) (:J.CIT)
Note that Petrobras is a TMAR client in Brazil. This should help bring in some boat business. more boats to service more wells. |
