Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 13 2022

LatAmOil BRAZIL LatAmOil

Since CADE’s revision of the privatisation dead-
lines last year, Petrobras has only succeeded in
unloading one refinery – namely, the 333,000
barrel per day (bpd) Landulpho Alves Refinery
(RLAM) in Bahia State, which was acquired by
a subsidiary of Mubadala Capital (UAE/Abu
Dhabi). The plant, now known as the Mataripe
refinery, is operated by a Mubadala affiliate
known as Acelen.
The NOC has also signed two additional
refinery sales agreements since last August.
One is with the Forbes & Manhattan bank of
Canada for the 6,000 bpd Unidade de Industri-
alizacao de Xisto (SIX) plant in Parana State, and To date, Petrobras has only sold off the RLAM refinery (Photo: Petrobras)
the other is with the Brazilian fuel distributor
Atem for the 46,000 bpd Refinaria Isaac Sabba privatisation also included the Refinaria do Nor-
(REMAN) plant in Amazonas State. The latter deste (RNEST) plant in Pernambuco State. The
deal is currently being analysed by CADE, and NOC now says, though, that it will only launch
Petrobras said in February it hopes to wrap up a new tender for the plant after it begins work on
both sales later in 2022. a new refining unit there in 2024.
The other four refineries out of the seven All of these planned refinery sales will even-
are the Refinaria Lubrificantes e Derivados do tually reduce the number of Petrobras’ refineries
Nordeste (LUBNOR) plant in Ceara State, the from 13 to five. They will also reduce the state-
Refinaria Alberto Pasqualini (REFAP) facility in owned company’s share of Brazil’s total refining
Rio Grande do Sul State, the Refinaria Gabriel capacity by about 50%. Additionally, they will
Passos (REGAP) in Minas Gerais State and the support a wider effort to trim non-core assets
Refinaria Presidente Getulio Vargas (REPAR) from the NOC’s portfolio and raise $20-40bn
plant in Parana State. for investment in upstream pre-salt fields in the
Petrobras’ original list of refineries slated for process. ™

ExxonMobil strikes out at Cutthroat-1

EXXONMOBIL (US) has reportedly seen dis-
appointing results from Cutthroat-1, a wildcat
well drilled at SEAL-M-428, an ultra-deepwater
block in the deepwater Sergipe-Alagoas basin
offshore Brazil.
According to the Brazilian independent
Enauta Participações, a non-operating part-
ner in the project, ExxonMobil did not find
any crude oil in the exploration well, which
was spudded on February 20. In light of these
results, Enauta said, the consortium has decided
to include results from the Cutthroat prospect
into its database of regional geological interpre-
tation and update its forecasts about the poten-
tial of that section of the Sergipe-Alagoas basin.
Meghan Macdonald, a spokesperson for the
US super-major, confirmed this plan. “While
the well did not encounter hydrocarbons, Exx-
onMobil will continue to integrate the data from
its findings into regional subsurface interpreta-
tion efforts in order to better understand the
exploration potential,” she said in a statement
emailed to Bloomberg.
Neither ExxonMobil nor Enauta commented Cutthroat-1 was drilled at the SEAL-M-428 offshore block (Image: Murphy Oil)
on the possibility of further exploration drilling
in the basin. However, the Brazilian independ- plans after Brazil’s securities regulator CVM
ent did say earlier this month that the consor- requested clarification of remarks made by
tium only intended to drill the one well this year. Roger Jenkins, the CEO of Murphy Oil, another
Enauta commented on the group’s drilling non-operating partner in the project.

Week 13 31•March•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11