The founding of Petrobras was authorized in October, 1953, by Law 2,004, with the objective of executing, on behalf of the Federal Government, the activities of the oil sector in Brazil.
Petróleo Brasileiro S/A began its activities with assets transferred from the former National Council of Petroleum (CNP), which maintained its supervising role:
  Oil fields with capacity to produce 2,700 barrels per day (bpd);
Assets of the Commission of Industrialization of the Bituminous Shale;
Mataripe refinery in Bahia State (currently RELAN), processing 5,000 bpd;
Refinery in construction phase, in Cubatão-SP (currently RPBC);
Twenty oil tankers with a capacity to carry 221 thousand tons;
Recoverable reserves of 15 million barrels;
Oil products consumption in Brazil of 137,000 of bpd;
Fertilizer plant under construction, in Cubatão (SP).
Over more than five decades the company has become the Country's leader in the distribution of oil products, an activity not covered by the Government monopoly, and is internationally acknowledged as the eighth largest oil companies in the world today. Leading the sector in the development one of the most advanced deep-water and ultra-deep water technology for oil production, it was awarded the Offshore Technology Company (OTC) prize twice in 1992 and 2001, the most important award in the sector.
In 1997, Brazil, as a direct result of Petrobras' activities, became part of the select group of 16 nations that produce more than 1 million barrels per day. In this same year Law No 9,478 was approved, opening the activities of the Brazilian oil industry to private initiative.
The same law, created the National Petroleum Agency (ANP), in charge of regulating, contracting and inspecting the activities of the sector and the National Policy Council Energy, responsible for designing public energy policies.
Keeping pace with the changes in national and international scenarios, Petrobras is ready for the new era of free competition, adopting new business-oriented perspectives and assuming greater corporate autonomy.
Since then Petrobras has doubled its production which in 2003 exceeded 2 million barrels of oil and natural gas per day. And it will continue to grow.
2006 brought many new achievements and production & exports records. Petrobras reached a record production.
No doubt that behind Petrobras' success there are to be seen the capabilities of all its units throughout the country: refineries, production and exploration areas, pipelines, terminals, regional management and the larger fleet of oil tankers.
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