Rio de Janeiro, Dec 21 - Brazil's state-owned energy major Petrobras is considering new projects in Peru and Uruguay, a top company official has said.Speaking to reporters here, Nestor Cervero, chief of Petrobras' international operations, said the company might team up with Brazilian petrochemicals company Braskem to set up natural gas plant in southern Peru, Spain's EFE news agency reported Friday.'The Peruvian government has expressed its intention to install an industrial centre in one of the poorest regions of Peru with the objective of accelerating development of the area,' he said.He also said that Petrobras expected to announce soon the discovery of an important natural gas reserve in Peru.Another Petrobras executive Paulo Roberto Costa told newspersons that the company, which already owns the main natural gas distribution network in Uruguay, plans to install a re-gasification plant in the neighbouring country.'It's a plant to re-gasify liquefied gas that we will import from other countries and with which we can supply both Uruguay and Argentina,' Costa said.He said the Uruguay plant would follow the model of the two facilities Petrobras is now setting up here in Brazil to re-gasify LNG imported from Africa and the Middle East.Those plants are being constructed from modified oil tankers.While eyeing new investments in Peru and Uruguay, Petrobras is ready to sharply reduce its involvement in oil-rich Venezuela, Cervero said.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
