Petrobras’ CEO, Mr. José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, gave a keynote address on November 1, 2011, to more than 400 participants at the annual Downstream Asia 2011 conference, in Singapore. At the event, which is part of the Singapore International Energy Week 2011, the CEO shared his outlook on Petrobras’ expected growth in the downstream sector. Mr. Gabrielli highlighted Brazil as one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world in terms of oil consumption. By way of comparison, Brazil’s annual oil consumption in 2010 was up 2.1%, in contrast to a decline of 0.04% in OECD countries for the same period. Speaking of Petrobras’ investment strategy, the CEO mentioned the robust investments made by the company in the last 30 years for exploring and producing of oil. While Brazil’s crude oil production has increased, the country faces a shortage in oil products, such as diesel, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and naphtha. Petrobras already has plans to build four new refineries, which together will yield another 1.3 million bpd of refining capacity by 2020, in a domestic oil production expected to reach 4.9 million bpd.
