Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazil’s state-owned oil company said Friday that its second-quarter net profit jumped 41 percent on soaring international petroleum prices and rising domestic demand in Latin America’s largest nation.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA earned 6.96 billion Brazilian reals ($3.2 billion) in the April-June period, or 1.59 reals (72 cents) per share, compared with 4.93 billion reals or 1.12 reals (51 cents) per share, in the same period a year ago.
Revenue for the quarter rose 17.2 percent to 37.94 billion reals compared to 32.36 billion reals the year before.
Petroleum production rose 7 percent for the first half of 2006 compared to the same period a year ago, but was flat on a quarterly basis because of planned production stoppages in May and June at nine facilities, said Petrobras chief executive Sergio Garbielli.
Petrobras also announced Friday that Brazil and Bolivia will extend a negotiating deadline over the company’s natural gas operations in Bolivia until mid-October.
Bolivia announced in May that it would nationalize all petroleum production and wanted to take a controlling stake in Petrobras’ operations in the Andean country, and demanded that Brazil pay higher prices for Bolivian gas.
In response, Petrobras scratched plans for new investments and said it would invest $22 billion from 2007 to 2011 in Brazil to develop its natural gas reserves and reduce its dependence on Bolivia.
Brazil gets half of its natural gas from Bolivia, and the figure is closer to 80 percent in Sao Paulo state, the nation’s industrial heart. The gas is used for industrial power generation, cooking gas and as fuel for cars.
