Brazil’s Petrobras received a license on Monday allowing it to boost crude processing by 35 percent at its controversial RNEST refinery, the local government said, a move that lets the company delay installation of promised pollution controls.
Under the license, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as government-controlled Petrobras is formally known, can process up to 100,000 barrels a day of crude at the refinery, up from 74,000 barrels under the previous license, according to a statement from the environmental protection agency of Pernambuco, the Brazilian state where the refinery is located.
The license requires Petrobras to use a special low-sulfur crude blend instead of high-sulfur heavy crude from Brazil’s Campos Basin near Rio de Janeiro that the refinery was designed to process.
Brazil Energy Insight 
Leave a comment