Brazil’s government-run oil company Petrobras got a waiver of pollution control requirements from the state of Pernambuco for its RNEST refinery, allowing it to boost output to 100,000 barrels a day from 74,000 barrels a day, the state government said on Monday.
Petrobras was previously limited by the state government to processing 64 percent of the RNEST, or Abreu e Lima, refinery’s first of two planned 115,000-barrel-a-day heavy oil refining systems because it had not finished installing air-pollution mitigation equipment.
Under the license, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, will have to use a special low-sulfur crude blend at the plant until the air-pollution equipment is installed, Pernambuco’s government said in a statement.
(Reporting by Marta Nogueira, additional reporting and writing by Jeb Blount; Editing byJonathan Oatis)
Brazil Energy Insight 
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