China Bails Out Petrobras's $14 Billion Refinery Misadventure

  • CNPC expands partnership to include graft-hit Comperj project
  • Petrobras and CNPC are already partners at offshore fields

Petrobras's Comperj oil refinery Itaborai, Brazil.

Photographer: Dado Galdieri
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China National Petroleum Corp plans to help complete a refinery in Rio de Janeiro that already cost Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras $14 billion before it was halted amid a widespread graft investigation.

CNPC, as the Chinese producer is known, signed a letter of intent adding the Comperj refinery to a partnership the two companies signed last year. The agreement also includes evaluating investments in some of Brazil’s largest legacy fields at the offshore Marlim cluster.