Resumen del autor, extraído del trabajo. The high competitiveness observed nowadays in the oil industry is demanding technological innovations and managerial expertise for a better positioning of the refiner. PETROBRAS needs to match the challenge of producing high quality transportation fuels with the increasing supply of Brazilian heavy crude from Campos basin. In this scenario the Strategic Refining Technology Program, PROTER, was created to tackle this problem. The main goal of the program is to develop new technologies or optimize the existing ones for the refining of domestic heavy oil in an economical way. The project portfolio is managed by PETROBRAS R&D Center together with the Operational Departments, focusing on the commercial units for reducing the time-to-market. Alliances, joint projects, cooperation with other institutions have been practicing, aiming to add and capture complementary capability. Many refining processes have been developed and upgraded, reducing operational and investment costs of the units. The main target is to increase residue conversion, reducing cost with imported crude, becoming viable the processing of Brazilian one. The novel technologies, their implementation in the refineries, as well as, the potential benefits are reported.