Petrobras Executes $10B Loan Agreement with China Development Bank

Petrobras signed yesterday the final agreements with the China Development Bank Corporation (CBD), regarding the US $10 billion loan, with a 10-year tenor, which had been under negotiation since May 2009, when the commitment were announced by the Company.

The proceeds will be used to fund the Company's 2009-2013 Business Plan and will be received in diverse tranches, according withdrawal notices to be issued by the Petrobras in the upcoming months.

According to Petrobras' CFO Almir Barbassa, who represented Petrobras in the signature ceremony, "This funding is relevant not only due to the amounts involved, but also because it represents a new phase of relationship between developing countries."

Simultaneously with the first withdrawal notice to be issued by Petrobras in the CDB loan, it will be started the long term exports agreement between Petrobras and Unipec Asia, a whole owned subsidiary of Sinopec. The agreement calls for an exports volume of 150,000 barrels of oil per day during the first year and 200,000 barrels of oil per day in the subsequent nine years. Although the CDB loan is a trigger to the exports agreement, the agreements are independent and do not represent a securitization structure.