UPDATE 2-PDVSA fails to get Brazil refinery loan-Petrobras

* Loan key for Venezuela's PDVSA to pay for refinery stake

* PDVSA has not said if it will continue with project

* Long-delayed project has strained Brazil-Venezuela ties

* PDVSA-Petrobras refinery process still alive-Gabrielli

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, failed to secure a $10 billion loan from Brazil's state-development bank needed to pay for its 40 percent stake in a Brazilian oil refinery, its partner, Petrobras, said on Tuesday.

The loan was denied after PDVSA failed to give the bank, known as BNDES, sufficient guarantees. Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras , Brazil's state-led oil company, and PDVSA are still in talks about the refinery despite this latest missed PDVSA deadline, Petrobras Chief Executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli told reporters in Rio de Janeiro.

The rejection is the latest chapter in a six-year story of the $14 billion Abreu e Lima Refinery near Recife on Brazil's northeast coast. The 230,000 barrel a day heavy-oil complex, which began as a solidarity gesture between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and former Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, now strains Brazilian-Venezuelan relations.

"We've informed PDVSA that we've not received the guarantees in the proper time," Gabrielli said. "We are waiting to see where this goes. There are deadlines and processes, but it doesn't matter. The process goes on."

BNDES's press office declined comment on the loan.

Petrobras which had planned on taking a 60 percent stake in the project, has also said it will complete the refinery and operate it with or without PDVSA. It is one of five refineries Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras is building in Brazil.

The refinery, years behind schedule and costing more than triple its original price tag, has yet to receive a penny from PDVSA, despite several grand ground-breaking ceremonies.

The refinery is about half completed and is expected to process crude from the Marlim field in Brazil's Campos Basin and from the Carabobo field in Venezuela.

Under the original loan proposal made in 2011, PDVSA planned to take over 40 percent of the $10 billion loan already made to Petrobras. While its guarantees were originally accepted by BNDES, one of the backing banks, Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo was downgraded as a result of the European debt crisis.

The downgrade resulted in new guarantees being required. The China Development Bank offered to back the project, but necessary details were never supplied to BNDES, the Valor Economico newspaper reported in December, citing sources close to the negotiation.

GASOLINE IMPORTS

Paulo Roberto da Costa, Petrobras' head of refining and supply said gasoline imports in early 2012 had declined from a peak in December.

Costa said Petrobras was importing a record 70,000 barrels of gasoline a day in December due to increased demand and limited cane ethanol output on the local market.

Petrobras' new need to import gasoline has not been good for its balance sheet, but has helped to soak up excess supply in the U.S. Gulf market.