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Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) S.A. has announced that the company's new bunker-producing refinery in the state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil, will be operational by 2013.

Commenting on the project to build the country's new $11.1 billion low-sulphur facility, Petrobras President José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo said "There is no delay," affirming that the work schedule for construction of the Premium II Refinery in Caucaia, 54 km from Fortaleza, is going according to plan.

The refinery will mainly produce diesel with low sulphur content, but also marine diesel for the bunker market, kerosene for the jet fuel industry and naphtha as raw material for the petrochemical industry.

The plant's initial processing capacity will be 150,000 barrels of oil per day, reaching a full capacity of 300,000 barrels per day by 2016.

Brazil's refining capacity of 1.9 million barrels a day is about half the amount of oil Petrobras expects to produce by 2015. Petrobras's refining chief, Paulo Roberto Costa, has previously said that the company will need at least five new refineries over the next decade to handle its growing oil output.

The Ceará refinery project forms part of a plan to transform the port of Pecem near Fortaleza, into a steelmaking, chemicals and industrial center for the country's poorest and fastest-growing region. It will also help Petrobras refine its growing oil output into fuels for export to the U.S. and Europe.