Brazil's state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras has announced that it would reassess its Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex (COMPERJ) project and its Abreu e Lima Refinery (RNEST) project, enabling the continuation of some construction works on the refinery projects.
This decision will enable the continuation of activities to implement Comperj units associated with its natural gas processing unit. In March 2016, Petrobras delayed the opening of its 165,000 bbl/d Comperj refinery project to at least 2023, after the group failed to find a partner for the project. The Comperj refinery's first unit, located in Itaboraí, 50 km away from Rio de Janeiro, was supposed to be commissioned in August 2016. In August 2015, Petrobras delayed the commissioning of the refinery (then 80% complete) to 2020, or earlier if it can find a partner to help complete the refinery. In addition, the group announced that the Comperj refinery project would require an additional US$4.3bn to be complete, in addition to the already US$11bn already spent on the first 165,000 bbl/d unit, raising the total cost of US$15.3bn.
The 115,000 bbl/d Abreu e Lima refinery was allowed to start operations with a limited output of 45,000 bbl/d or 39% of its capacity (later raised to 64% or 73,600 bbl/d). The US$20bn RNEST refinery is one of the most expensive refineries ever built, and only half of its 230,000 bbl/d capacity has been commissioned, as the project was hit by a giant bribery scandal and massive delays. Petrobras will now continue procurement activities to complete the emissions reduction unit (SNOX) and other construction work to complement Section 1 of RNEST.