Brazil’s state-run company, Petrobras, plans to invest $1 billion to expand a refinery in Minas Gerais and build a petrochemical factory to make acrylic acid, the company has said.

The project will be financed by the Minas Gerais State Development Bank, which expects the expansion and factory to be completed by 2010.
Petrobras said $650 million will be used to modernise and expand the Gabriel Passos Refinery in the city of Betim. The rest will be used to build the petrochemical complex.
Petrobras has, meanwhile, started talks to buy US-based refineries from Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, Brazilian newspaper O Globo has reported.