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ey will also have to sign con dentiality agreements by September 27, prior to beginning non-binding talks on the assets.
e sale of the re neries is in line with a deal that Petrobras struck with the Brazilian Jus- tice Ministry’s Anti-trust Division, known by its Portuguese acronym CADE, in mid-June. Under this agreement, the company is due to unload eight of its 13 re neries. Together, these eight plants can process around 1.1mn bpd, equivalent to roughly half of the country’s re n- ing capacity.
The other four plants slated for sale are smaller than those listed above. Petrobras has said it will publish a prospectus for each facility before the end of this year.
e re nery divestment campaign will also support the company’s wider effort to divest $26.9bn worth of assets during the 2019-2023 period. Petrbras has said that this campaign will allow it to divest from or scale back its involve- ment in a number of areas, including fertiliser and biofuels production, logistical operations and distribution of gas and re ned fuels.
ARGENTINA
Argentina reports more upswings in oil and gas production
ARGENTINA’S government revealed on July 2 that the country’s hydrocarbon production had hit a record high in the month of May.
According to a statement from the Secretar- iat of Energy, Argentina saw crude oil output rise by 4.2% year on year in May, marking the 15th straight month of such increases. At the same time, natural gas yields went up by 7.6% in the same month, reaching their highest reported level since July 2009. Most of the growth was attributable to unconventional elds in the Vaca Muerta shale basin, the statement said.
e statement did not provide exact gures on production. O cial data posted on the Sec- retariat’s website showed, though, that Argentin- ian elds had yielded around 12.09mn barrels of crude oil and 19.98mn cubic metres of gas in the January-May period.
e upswing is in line with long-term posi- tive trends. As the statement noted, the average number of wells subjected to hydraulic fractur- ing (fracking) in Vaca Muerta rose from 100 per month over the full year of 2015 to 544 per month in the rst ve months of 2019.
e statement also pointed out that the rise in oil and gas production had benefitted the country by reducing the need for imported energy. May was the 13th month in a row that Argentina has not had to import any crude oil at all, it explained. is was the rst time that a gap of this length had occurred since 2012, it added.
e bene ts of this shi are also evident in Argentina’s trade balance, which is moving in a positive direction, the Secretariat commented. e country reported an energy trade de cit of
$2.3bn last year but will come close to breaking even in 2019 and may have a surplus in 2020, when it is set to become a net exporter of oil and gas, the statement said. is is a welcome change, given that Argentina saw its energy trade go from a surplus of $6.1bn in 2006 to a de cit of $6.9bn by 2013.
Week 26 03•July•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m
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