Sao Paulo, Brazil, 31 Jan – Brazil’s Petrobras plans to invest 136.6 million reals (US$64 million) in oil exploration and production projects in Angola this year, the company said in a statement sent to Macauhub.

The company published its Annual Business Plan for 2007 last week and included projects in Angola, Turkey, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay and Colombia instead of investing in the United States, Nigeria and in other projects in Argentina and Colombia.

In June 2006, the Brazilian state oil company published its first Investment Budget, but in a statement the company said that the budget had been adjusted to “incorporate new projects, bring forward priority projects, adjust costs and use more current accounting practices.”

Investments for 2007, which were previously budgeted at around US$22 billion, now stand at US$25.8 billion with the update of the plan.

Of the 7.5 billion reals (US$3.5 billion) added to the initial plan, 2.4 billion will be used for international projects, which, in total, will receive investment of 7 billion reals in 2007.

The changes to the budget also include bringing forward natural gas projects and investment in biofuels and electricity from renewable sources.

According to the new budget, around 3.3 billion reals are to be used in projects related to the so-called Gas Production Anticipation Plan (Plangas), which is intended to increase the availability of natural gas on the Brazilian market. (macauhub)