Petrobras (PBR)

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• Administrative and general expenses (R$ 225 million), due to an increase in expenditure with personnel (R$ 187 million), as a result of the increase in the labor force, the 2008/2009 collective bargaining agreement and the process for advances in level and promotion for 2008. There was also an increase in expenditure with third-party services (R$ 74 million), mainly data-processing, compensated by the decrease in travel expenses, materials, honors, promotional gifts and general services, as a result of the measures taken by the company for optimization of costs.
  
  
• Exploration costs (R$ 508 million), due to greater expenditure for geology and geophysics (R$ 414 million), due to the intensification of the Company's investment program, in addition to the increase in expenditure for the write-off of dry or economically unviable wells (R$ 62 million); and
  
  
• Other operating expenses (R$ 1,414 million), resulting from the recognition in September 2009 of the special participation in the Marlim field for prior years, in accordance with the understanding between Petrobras and ANP (R$ 2,048 million). This effect was partially eased by the decrease in expenditure with institutional relations, cultural projects and contractual and regulatory fines (R$ 589 million);

Partially offset by the decrease in the following expenses:

• Research and development (R$ 146 million), resulting from the lower provisioning of funds for contracts of entities accredited by ANP (R$ 276 million), a result of the drop in gross revenue, partially offset by the increase in the expenditure for third party services (R$ 195 million).

• Negative effect of R$ 8,993 million in the financial results, emphasizing the lower results from monetary and exchange variations (R$ 8,465 million), as a result of the effects of the greater depreciation of the Real in 2009 on net assets exposed to exchange rates, in addition to the greater volume of financing in relation to the previous year; and

• Increase of R$ 3,901 million in the equity in earnings of subsidiaries, mainly due to the better results presented by Downstream, PNBV, Petroquisa, Gaspetro and PIB BV.