Page 20 - LatAmOil Week 01 2021

LatAmOil BRAZIL LatAmOil

Atlanta is in a shallow-water section of the Santos Basin (Image: Enauta)
The company has several exploration assets in independent, last August.
Brazil, including two operated blocks in Pará Manati is located offshore Bahia State, in
Maranhão and one operated block in the Foz do north-eastern Brazil, around 10 km from the
Amazonas Basin, as well as shares in nine Ser- city of Cairú in water depths of 35-50 metres. It
gipe-Alagoas concessions with US supermajor came on stream in 2009 and yielded 105 bpd of
ExxonMobil. It sold its entire 45% interest in the gas condensate and 1.2bn cubic metres per day
Manati field to Gas Bridge, another Brazilian of gas last year. ™

Petrobras collects BRL232.6mn

from settlement deal with Vitol

BRAZILIAN state-run oil and gas company on December 5, 2018. The charges have followed
Petrobras has received BRL232.6mn ($43mn) the trading company into the US federal court
in a settlement with global energy trading firm system, which recently secured an agreement
Vitol in relation to the ongoing Lava Jato (Car that will see the US subsidiary of Vitol paying
Wash) corruption scandal. $164mn related to bribes the firm paid in Brazil
The settlement was brokered as part of a and in other countries.
leniency deal between the Swiss-headquar- Under that agreement, the company has to
tered trading company and federal prosecutors, pay the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which
according to a Petrobras securities filing. Vitol launched its own investigation of the matter, a
and the Brazilian Federal Prosecutor’s Office criminal penalty totalling $135mn to resolve
entered into the agreement on December 3, the probes, of which $45mn will go to Brazilian
2020 and then secured approval for the plan authorities. Additionally, it must pay the Com-
from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office Chamber modity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
for Combating Corruption on December 18, more than $12.7mn, plus $16mn in fines.
2020, the company noted. The Swiss firm, which is the world’s largest
In the securities filing, the state-owned firm independent oil trader, has admitted guilt under
went on to say that it had received a total of a three-year deferred prosecution agreement
BRL4.8bn ($887mn) worth of settlements and in the US. It has also promised Washington to
compensation related to the wide-ranging probe improve its internal reporting and compliance
to date. functions.
Lava Jato, Brazil’s largest-ever corruption Last September, US prosecutors also charged
investigation, has been underway for years. The a former US-based employee of Vitol with brib-
probe entered its 74th phase last year, with a ery, conspiracy and money laundering involving
review of foreign exchange transactions carried the payment of an $870,000 bribe to government
out by Petrobras around a decade ago. officials in Ecuador in order to win $300mn
Vitol was one of the companies targeted in worth of oil contracts. These charges also arose
the 57th phase of the probe, which was launched from the Car Wash probe. ™

P20 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 07•January•2021