- Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) receives a license allowing it to boost crude processing by 35% at its controversial Abreu e Lima refinery, the local Pernambuco state government says, a move that lets the company delay installation of promised pollution controls.
- Under the license, PBR can process up to 100K bbl/day of crude at the refinery, up from 74K bbl/day under the previous license; the license requires the company to use a special low-sulfur crude blend instead of high-sulfur heavy crude from Brazil's Campos Basin near Rio de Janeiro that the refinery was designed to process.
- At $20B - 5x the original budget - Abreu e Lima probably is the most expensive refinery ever built; only one of two 115K bbl/day heavy oil refining trains at the plant is operating, but the new license raises the train's processing capacity to 87% from 64%.