Petrobras Eyes GOM Market For Expansion

Petrobras plans to invest $5.2 billion in foreign acquisitions, mainly in the Gulf of Mexico, to meet a 2005 foreign output target of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), Reuters reported. Jorge Marques de Toledo Camargo, head of Petrobras' foreign operations, also said other purchases would focus on offshore drilling projects in which he said the Brazilian company had a competitive advantage. "We cannot meet this goal (of 300,000 bpd) only with our existing portfolio. We need to accumulate new assets," Camargo said in a recent interview while visiting Colombia. "In South America and Western Africa ... we have built a portfolio as we had planned. The area that would be most challenging for our growth is the Gulf of Mexico, where we are focusing," he said. Petrobras' foreign production -- now just 70,000 bpd -- represents a tiny fraction of its total output, forecast in 2001 at 1.39 million bpd. But even with its large and growing output -- up from 1.27 million bpd last year -- Petrobras is still importing oil from abroad for domestic consumption. Last year, the company's oil imports reached 350,000 bpd. Last week, Petrobras bought 30 oil exploration areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico at an auction in Houston for over $17 million. -- (Reuters)