Brazilian oil company Petrobras has opened an office in Dutch port of Rotterdam as of Monday February 1, 2010.

An announcement from the Port of Rotterdam Authority (PoR) said the company and its CEO José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo was welcomed by Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb of Rotterdam and Minister for Foreign Trade Frank Heemskerk.

"Their presence underlined the importance of the developing Brazilian economy and the function Petrobras serves in this, for the Netherlands and the region of Rotterdam in particular," the PoR said.

The port authority highlighted that the Brazilian oil company has been active in the port of Rotterdam for over two years.

"The company leases tanks at the ETT and Vopak terminals in the Europoort area and imports low-sulphur fuel oil from Brazil," it noted.

"In this (LSFO) sector, it is an important party - with  850,000 tonnes a year - for the ultimate bunker market. The Port of Rotterdam Authority estimates sales of low-sulphur bunkers at 15-20% of the total, so somewhere between 2 and 2.5 million a year."

Petrobras has previously told Bunkerworld that its low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) cargoes from Brazil have a typical sulphur content of about 0.7% - 0.9%.

The imported fuel oil is blended to become a low sulphur 380 centistokes (cst) fuel oil suitable for supply to ships, meeting the current 1.50% fuel sulphur limit in place for emission control areas in Northern Europe.

In May 2009, Petrobras expanded its bunkering operations in Rotterdam to also offer high sulphur (HS) 380 cst bunker fuel to ships calling at the port.

Supply to ship and ex-wharf sales in Rotterdam have been handled by bunkering personnel at the company's London branch, Petrobras Europe.

Looking at the future, the Rotterdam port authority said that while Petrobras has not been involved in ethanol exports from Brazil to Europe, this "could change" as it develops its presence in the region.

"Finally, the Brazilian oil company has a large, long-term lease contract for an oil production and storage vessel with SBM Offshore in Schiedam," the PoR press release noted.