Petrobras Awards €700 Million Rio Refinery Revamp to Portugal’s Mota-Engil

Portuguese construction giant Mota-Engil has just secured what may become its largest single engineering package in Latin America this decade: a €700 M assignment for Petrobras’ Duque de Caxias refinery outside Rio de Janeiro. The 4-year job deepens Lisbon’s corporate footprint in Brazil’s vast oil-and-gas modernisation drive and could swell Mota-Engil’s order book beyond the symbolic €5 B mark before year-end. For Portuguese workers, suppliers and pension funds, the deal signals fresh demand for home-grown expertise at a moment when public-works pipelines inside Portugal remain modest.

Why the deal matters back home

Portugal’s export-oriented builders rely on overseas mega-projects to keep payrolls steady, and this contract arrives as EU-funded domestic works taper off. A €700 M slice of Brazilian capital expenditure will feed the company’s Porto and Lisbon engineering teams, secure specialised subcontracting slots for metalwork firms in Aveiro, and underpin dividend capacity for thousands of small Portuguese shareholders. Mota-Engil already draws more than two-thirds of operating revenue abroad; analysts see the Petrobras win as proof the group can compete head-to-head with Spanish and Italian multinationals for high-complexity, high-margin industrial sites. Ethifinance still assigns the company an investment-grade solvency profile, arguing that long-cycle energy projects like this one generate predictable cash-flow even if raw-material prices swing. In other words, every euro of Brazilian revenue helps buffer the firm—and by extension Portugal’s construction cluster—against the vagaries of the Iberian housing cycle.

Inside the Brazilian project

The consortium, anchored by Mota-Engil’s subsidiary Empresa Construtora do Brasil (ECB), will handle the design, civil works, mechanical erection, instrumentation and commissioning of new process units that will ultimately expand gasoline and diesel output at the 60-year-old refinery. The scope also includes assisted operation for 12 months, ensuring Petrobras’ staff can run the upgraded equipment seamlessly. Work must be finalised within 50 months, a timetable Petrobras set to coincide with three new pre-salt platforms that will feed additional crude to Duque de Caxias. Mota-Engil’s 33 % stake in the consortium translates into roughly €230 M of direct top-line contribution, but management insists the value goes beyond numbers: it cements the group’s status as a preferred contractor in Brazil’s strategic energy assets, alongside Brazilian heavyweights such as Engevix and Promon.

The numbers behind Mota-Engil’s Latin America push

Before the latest award, the company had already clinched two Petrobras contracts in 2025: €250 M for offshore maintenance services and €240 M to dismantle 420 km of flexible pipelines in the ageing Marlim fields. Adding the new refinery package, Mota-Engil’s Latin American backlog is now hovering near €1.2 B, representing about 26 % of the global order book. Chief executive Carlos Mota Santos has repeatedly argued that large, cash-generative Latin projects allow the group to pursue greenfield concessions in Portugal without straining the balance sheet. Investors seem convinced: despite sporadic short-selling attacks on Euronext Lisbon, the share price is up double-digits since July, fuelled in part by rumours the company might spin off its renewable-energy arm once net debt slips below 2× EBITDA.

Petrobras’ billion-dollar spending spree

For Petrobras, the contract aligns with its 2025-2029 investment plan, which earmarks $77 B for exploration and production and another $11 B for refining and low-carbon upgrades. Duque de Caxias is central to that effort because it sits near Brazil’s largest consumer market and is linked by pipeline to the future pre-salt processing hubs offshore. Executives in Rio see foreign partners like Mota-Engil as crucial for meeting strict safety and emissions targets, particularly on flaring reduction and carbon-capture retrofits. While critics question whether expanded refining squares with Brazil’s net-zero pledges, Petrobras counters that state-of-the-art European contractors will deliver lower-intensity units and modern sulphur-recovery systems. The Portuguese group, in turn, gains access to Brazil’s booming hydrocarbons value chain without bearing reservoir or price risk.

What analysts are watching

Market watchers in Lisbon will monitor three variables. First, whether Mota-Engil can maintain double-digit margins in the face of Brazil’s notoriously litigation-prone procurement environment. Second, the impact on working capital; large Petrobras milestones often require extended payment terms, compelling contractors to pre-finance equipment. Third, currency hedging: the real has been volatile, so the company is expected to line up forward-rate agreements via Millennium bcp and Santander Totta to lock in profit translated to euros. Still, research desks at XTB and Banco Carregosa stress that the group’s record €4.5 B backlog provides cushion if any single project slips.

Looking ahead: opportunities and risks

With Brazilian elections in the rear-view mirror and commodity prices stabilising, industry insiders anticipate further tender rounds for refinery upgrades and de-commissioning campaigns in mature Campos Basin assets. Mota-Engil’s local headcount already tops 3,200 engineers and tradespeople, and the firm is scouting land near Niterói for a prefab steel facility that would shorten logistics for future offshore modules. Risks remain: Brazil’s supreme audit court can halt projects over procurement disputes, and inflationary spikes in cement or diesel could erode fixed-price bids. Yet on balance, the €700 M award pushes Portugal’s best-known construction exporter deeper into a market that—unlike many others—still values the blend of Iberian engineering know-how and competitive labour the company offers. If execution stays on schedule, the first upgraded process unit at Duque de Caxias could be online before the decade closes, carrying with it a distinct stamp: Made with Portuguese expertise, delivered on Brazilian soil.