Petrobras hopes to join big league

RIO DE JANIERO: Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, said it wants to rival the trading operations of BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp as rising crude output prompts the company to seek new markets for its products.

Petrobras, as the company is known, will have about 2 million barrels a day of crude and refined products more to trade by 2020 as output gains from offshore fields and new refineries begin producing diesel for export, Paulo Roberto da Costa, the company's refining chief, said in an interview. The company also wants to boost international trading unrelated to its own oil needs, following the model of BP, he said.

"When I visited BP a few years ago I was impressed by how they produced about 3 million barrels a day but traded about 6 million barrels," Da Costa said. "More and more we're involved in permanent offshore trading, the way BP works, buying a cargo in one country and selling it to another."