Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Petrobras have agreed to finance a joint refinery project in Brazil.

The state-controlled companies will build a 230,000bpd refinery at Abreu e Lima in the state of Pernambuco, in north-east Brazil.

Discover B2B Marketing That Performs

Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.

Find out more

The refinery which will cost R26bn ($16.4bn) to build will begin operations in 2013, reports Reuters.

PDVSA will present partial guarantees by August this year on a R10bn ($6.3bn) loan from BNDES, Brazilian Government foreign policy adviser Marco Aurelio Garcia said.