Petrobras' 4th new refinery to be high-capacity

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 28 (Reuters) - Brazil's oil company Petrobras on Wednesday confirmed plans to build a fourth new refinery with a capacity above the average of its existing 11 plants, possibly similar to a planned 600,000 barrels per day premium refinery.

Petrobras (PETR4.SA)(PBR.N) chief executive, Jose Sergio Gabrielli, told reporters the company has agreed in principle to build the oil processing plant in addition to two refineries and a petrochemical complex already in the pipeline.

"We are finishing the studies, but it (the capacity) will be in the range above the average of our refineries," Gabrielli said.

The state-run Petrobras and Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, have started work on a 200,000 bpd refinery in the northeastern state of Pernambuco. In Rio de Janeiro state, Petrobras is building the Comperj petrochemical complex to process 150,000 bpd of local heavy crude.

Petrobras already had announced plans for a 600,000 bpd premium refinery to be built by 2014 and produce high-quality oil products, part of which can be exported.

Folha de S. Paulo newspaper this week quoted Gabrielli as saying Petrobras hopes to make Brazil self-sufficient in fuel by 2015 if all the planned refineries are in place by then.

The company, which currently exports gasoline but imports large quantities of diesel and naphtha, expects to nearly double its refining capacity to 3.6 million barrels per day by 2015 from 1.9 million bpd now.

The planned 3.6 million bpd overall capacity would include expansions at Petrobras' existing plants in Brazil. (Reporting by Denise Luna, writing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by David Gregorio)