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PETROBRAS is well on the road to greatly increasing its market share of the South American oil business. The state-run oil giant is investing more than US$ 3 billion in a strategy to spread risk, its managers say, through bold foreign exploration.

In October 2002, PETROBRAS paid US$ 1 billion for 59% of Argentina’s second-largest oil producer, Perez Companc (PECOM), and expects to spend another US$ 2 billion over the next five years to beef up international production, mainly in Venezuela but also in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Earlier, PETROBRAS swapped a billion dollar’s worth of assets with Spanish-Argentine energy giant Repsol-YPF for a share of Argentina’s retail gasoline and refining business.

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Access on Feb./2004 (with adaptations).

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