China goes to BRIC summit with multi-million dollars energy investments in Brazil
15 Apr 2010
When China's President Hu Jintao, arrived last night at Brazil for a state visit and to attend the second heads-of-state summit of BRIC nations, he was more than welcomed by his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva since Hu had come armed with multi-million dollars investment proposal.
Invisible to the world, China has huge investments in Latin and South America, more so in Brazil, South America's biggest economy.
Chinese President Hu Jintao will be signing multi-million dollars worth of oil deals with Brazil's state owned oil giant Petrobras.Sinopec executives had already visited Brazil last month and finalised the details, which will be signed by Hu Jintao in Brazil this week.
Under the deals, Asia's largest crude refiner, China's state-owned Sinopec will acquire stakes in Petrobras' two offshore blocks in Brazil and also sign a long-term oil supply deal.
Since Petrobras requires approximately $112 billion through 2014 to fund its newly discovered oil at the Tupi oil field, (See: Brazil's energy producer Petrobras on $112.7-billion expansion), which contains a massive 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of untapped light oil, the Rio de Janeiro-based oil company has been borrowing from state credit agencies and investors in the bond markets.
According to the Brazilian media, Lula da Silva is likely to talk to Hu for a $10-billion loan to Petrobras from China's state-owned banks to fund part of the Tupi oil field expansion.
