Shandong Kerui Petroleum Equipment Ltd. has successfully signed with Petrobras for a natural gas processing plant in Itaborai City in the state of Rio, the Chinese company said early April.

The natural gas treatment plant project, won by specific purpose entity formed by Kerui and the Brazilian engineering company Método Engenharia, will be the largest natural gas treatment plant in Brazil. The project worth nearly US$600 million is of "great significance" to the development of oil and gas for Petrobras pre-salt, according to the company press release.

The plant station is mainly used to deal with the associated gas produced in the process of pre-salt oil development in the Santos Basin, which provides a strong guarantee for the normal production of pre-salt oil in Brazil. The project is expected to increase the transportation and processing capacity of natural gas from 23 million cubic meters to 44 million cubic meters per day, the release said.

Li Jinzhang, China’s ambassador in Brazil, said: "We warmly congratulate Kerui Petroleum on the successful bid for the Brazil Itaborai Natural Gas Treatment Plant (UPGN) project, which demonstrates Kerui’s enterprising spirit and relentless efforts in Brazil and represents the important achievements of Chinese know-how entering Brazil. We hope Kerui Petroleum will set up a benchmark for projects on the Sino-Brazilian oil and gas cooperation with first-class design and construction to facilitate local economic and social development."

The plant is Petrobras’s first public bidding oil project since 2014 and Kerui Petroleum has become the first and only private enterprise in China to be awarded a Petrobras project in the field of oil engineering, the release said.