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Sources of Energy

Sources of Energy

Oil sets the modern world into motion and is present in our daily lives in fuels, fertilizers, plastics, paints, and rubber, among other products. We have built a story of success around it. We have now discovered an immense reserve in the pre-salt, one which holds a type of oil that will allow us to diversify and obtain higher value added products. A new challenge.However, our story is not limited to this. We are searching for energy in other sources, such as natural gas and biofuels.

Natural gas is versatile and can be used in households, in the industry, and as vehicular fuel. Our renewable energy research led us to develop a unique technology in the world to manufacture biodiesel and new techniques to produce ethanol.Parallelly, we are developing techniques to harvest energy from the power of the winds and from rivers.

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Sources of Energy

  • Oil
  • Natural Gas
  • Biofuels
  • Wind
  • Hydroelectric power
  • Thermal Plants


Oil
Most of our reserves are in offshore fields, buried at great depths, including the Pre-Salt, and this requires knowledge and technology. We produce over 2 million barrels per day from about 15,000 wells. This oil is transported in our 172 vessels and 26,000 km of pipelines. We have 15 refineries which, together, are capable of refining more than 2 million barrels of oil per day. Learn more about our performance in the Pre-Salt.

 

Natural Gas
The cleanest of all fossil fuels, natural gas has characteristics that help the devices that run on it last longer and that reduce its environmental impacts. We produce 415,000 barrels of oil equivalent of natural gas per day that are destined to Distributors, Power Plants, Refineries and Fertilizer Plants.

 

Biofuels
The investments we have made in biofuels reassert our commitment to attaining development associated to socioenvironmental responsibility. Brazil's best known biofuel is ethanol: it has been marketed at service stations since the 1970's. And we recently kicked-off biodiesel production, and currently have three plants already in operation. Learn more about our production and development of biofuels.

 

Wind
The Wind Power Plant in Macao, in Northeastern Brazil, produces 1.8 MW of electricity and was the company's first project to be granted registration as a Clean Development Mechanism, issued by the UN. The plant completed six years of operations in 2009. Since its deployment, it has produced 28,164 MWh and avoided the emissions of approximately 1,200 t/year of CO2 to the atmosphere.

 

Hydroelectric power
We also hold stakes in 15 small hydroelectric plants (SHP) and eight oil-fueled thermoelectric plants in Brazil. The assets in commercial operation and those under construction will total an installed capacity of 1,471 MW. In Argentina, the company holds stakes in the Pichi Picún Leufú hydroelectric plant, which has a capacity of 285 MW, and in the Genelba and Genelba Plus gas-fired thermoelectric plants.

 

Thermal Plants
In 2009, Petrobras' own and leased thermoelectric plants (TEP) generated an average of 525 MW of power. Our thermoelectric generation park has an installed capacity of 5,476 MW.

Sources of energy

  • Pre-salt

    Pre-saltThe discoveries made in the Pre-Salt raise us to a new level of reserves and oil production, ranking us in a prominent position among the major energy companies.

  • Biofuels

    BiofuelsBiofuels are produced from renewable sources, such as biomass and agricultural products like sugar cane, oleaginous plants, and animal fat.

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