PETROBRAS: Joint venture with PDVSA should be postponed

The joint venture between the Brazilian state owned-oil company Petrobras and Venezuela's PDVSA in the Abreu e Lima Refinery (state of Pernambuco, Brazil) should be postponed once again. The partnership has been negotiated since 2005 and the governments of the two countries expected to announce the undertaking next Friday, during a meeting between the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, in Caracas, Venezuela. 'Brazil wants to advance in the negotiations for the joint venture,' said the Brazilian spokesman of the Presidency of the Republic, Marcelo Baumbach.