Petrobras, Mitsui form Brazilian ethanol venture

March 14, 2008
Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) is forming a 50:50 joint venture with Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan for investments in renewable energy.

Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, Mar. 14 -- Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) is forming a 50:50 joint venture with Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan for investments in renewable energy.

The new joint venture, called Participacoes Nippo Brasileira em Complexos Bioenergeticos SA, will provide ethanol for the Japanese market, Petrobras said.

In February Petrobras said it would join with Mitsui and Brazilian builder Camargo Correa SA to form a JV to build the world's first ethanol-only pipeline.

The pipeline, with a capacity to transport 12 million cu m/year of ethanol, will ship the biofuel from sugarcane-growing areas in western Brazil to the Atlantic coast in Sao Paulo state.

Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].