Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Special Reports

Petrobras Largest Company in Latin America

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BY CHRONICLE STAFF

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras has replaced Mexican oil company Pemex as Latin America's largest company, according to the LBC500 - the ranking of Latin America's 500 largest companies from Latin Business Chronicle. The ranking is based on 2008 revenue data from Economatica and individual companies.

Petrobras saw revenues jump by 34.8 percent last year to $118.3 billion. Meanwhile, Pemex saw a 16.8 percent increase to $98.2 billion.

According to the 2008 report for Venezuela's oil company PDVSA  -- released Sunday -- the firm posted revenues last year of $126.4 billion, which would make it larger than Petrobras.  However, there are widespread doubts about the firm's numbers.

”Total income [is] more like $84 billion, close to Pemex's but much lower than Petrobras,” estimates Gustavo Coronel, a former member of the board of PDVSA. “I think the income is even lower than that, because I believe production is much lower than they claim.”

Also Roberto Bottome, editor of the Caracas-based newsletter VenEconomy, doubts PDVSA’s production numbers. “I believe PDVSA's production figures are fudged,” he says.

As a result, PDVSA was not included in this year's LBC500.

While Petrobras and Pemex dominate the list, there are also other giants. They include Brazilian...

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LBC 500: Ranking of Latin America's 500 largest companies