Petrobras ceases production at Brazilian biodiesel plant

Brazilian oil and gas heavyweight Petrobras announced that it will cease production activities at its biodiesel Petrobras Biocombustivel plant in Ceará state, due to low profitability.

This decision is in line with the company's strategy to fully leave the biofuel sector. The process will start on 1 November, 2016, and should take around six months. All of the employees will be relocated, the company said in its press release.

In a statement, the firm said: “The decision was communicated to employees, unions, customers and drive suppliers. Whereas according to the projections, there would be a solution to the plant in the short term and without new investments, the board of directors of Petrobras Biofuel decided to terminate the production of biodiesel in Ceará and thus focus resources on projects with higher profitability.”

Unlike the Ceará facility, the plants located in the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia will continue to operate normally while the company is studying alternative structural changes for these units, aside from complete closure.