Brazil's Abreu Lima refinery, a joint venture between state-run oil companies Petrobras and Venezuela's PDVSA, is estimated to cost roughly 23 billion reais ($13.3 bln), a director at Petrobras said on Wednesday.

In 2006, Petrobras gave an initial cost estimate of the refinery that is to be built in Brazil's northeastern state of Pernambuco at $4 billion, though the Brazilian real has strengthened considerably against the dollar since then.

Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA will hold a 40 percent stake in the project.

($1=1.723 reais) (Reporting by Denise Luna; writing by Reese Ewing)

Energy