According to Nestor Cervero, the company's director of the International Department, 4.9 billion dollars, or 32 percent of the total amount, will be invested in the United States where Petrobras's oil and gas fields of Chinook and Cascade, located in the Gulf of Mexico, operate.

Cervero said the company is also studying the possibility of investing in another refinery in the United States as well as boosting the production capacity of an existing refinery in Pasadena, Texas, operated by a joint venture comprised of Petrobras and local company Astra.

The initiative was motivated by the growth of production in the fields, Cervero stressed. Petrobras intends to refine 200,000 to 250,000 barrels of oil a day in the United States by the year 2012.

Cervero also announced that 200 million dollars will be designated in the 2008-2012 period for petrochemical projects abroad, especially in Argentina, where Petrobras acquired assets of former petrochemical company Perez. He revealed that the company plans to set up a petrochemical plant in another South American country in 2012.

Earlier Monday, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced that the government hopes to renegotiate a contract concerning the Palo Azul field with the Brazilian state-owned company. An Ecuadorian committee questioned the property right over the field in July, and Correa stressed that Petrobras must share the production spot with Ecuador's state energy company Petroecuador.