Petrobras plans 1-million-liter ethanol export to Japan

Petrobras plans to export almost a million liters of ethanol a year to Japan within five years. The Brazilian state-owned oil company closed a contract with Japanese trading company Mitsui to produce a component, along with a sugar-and-alcohol refinery, which will yield it 60,000 liters next year. In Japan, the company already has a place for storing, mixing and distributing the ethanol in the form of a refinery located in the island of Okinawa, according to Petrobras Executive Manager Antônio Sérgio Oliveira. “Japan is beginning a program of adding ethanol to gasoline and consumption of the product is going to increase. The refinery, acquired for US$200 million, should be reconfigured to expand its storage and distribution capacity, said the executive. (May 10, 2008)