Petrobras, the national oil company of Brazil, announced Tuesday that it has concluded negotiations with China Development Bank (CDB) for a bilateral loan of US$10 billion.

The money will be used to finance Petrobras' investment plan, which includes the procurement of goods and services from China, the company said.

The interest rate of the loan will be below 6.5 percent, said Sergio Gabrielli, CEO of Petrobras, at a press conference held here Tuesday.

Without releasing details, the two sides agreed to increase actual crude oil exports from Brazil to China.

A long-term export agreement was also signed Tuesday between Petrobras and UNIPEC ASIA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), Asia's largest refiner by output.

It provides that Petrobras export 150,000 barrels of oil per day to China starting from 2009 and 200,000 barrels of oil per day from 2010 to 2019.

The price of oil exported to China will be decided based on the market, said Gabrielli.

Apart from the agreement, Petrobras and Sinopec signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which the two sides would cooperate in several areas such as exploration, refining, petrochemicals and the supply of related goods and services, said Petrobras.

Sinopec announced in February that it has signed a contract with Petrobras to import 3 million to 5 million tonnes of crude oil from the latter from February 2009 to January 2010 at market price.

Also in February, Sinopec and CDB signed an MOU with Petrobras regarding cooperation in the fields of oil and finance.

According to the memorandum, the annual trade volume between Sinopec and Petrobras will be raised from 3 million tonnes in 2008to between 10 million to 12.5 million tonnes before the end of 2010. Their future oil trading volume will reach 30 million tonnes.

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2009)