Page 4 - LatAmOil Week 32

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil
Petrobras moves ahead
with divestment programme
As the NOC hives off non-core assets, it is also reorienting its upstream portfolio
WHAT:
Since the start of August, Petrobras has unveiled plans to unload its stakes in several upstream projects, as well as power stations, a biofuel company and a pipeline operator.
WHY:
All of these sales will complement efforts to boost investment in the ultra-deepwater zone and other large-scale, high-value initiatives.
WHAT NEXT:
The company is likely to continue selling off brown eld and small- scale projects.
BRAZIL’S government has recently taken sev- eral important steps to help the national oil com- pany (NOC) Petrobras concentrate on its core activities – namely, upstream exploration and development.
In mid-July, for example, the company o - cially launched the process of selling o down- stream assets. It put four oil re neries with a combined processing capacity of nearly 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) up for sale and said it would do the same for four additional plants, along with associated infrastructure such as pipelines and terminals, before the end of this year.
Shortly therea er, the NOC o ered up 30% of equity in Petrobras Distribuidora, its natu- ral gas distribution subsidiary. In doing so, it e ectively privatised the midstream operator by bringing its own stake down below 50% to 41.25%.
The divestment campaign has continued into August. Since the beginning of the month, Petrobras has taken additional steps to hive o non-core assets so that it can focus on explora- tion and development while also reducing its debt load.
Even so, the company has also been working
to unload some upstream assets.
is essay aims to review the most recent
developments and assess their impact on the company’s overall portfolio.
Upstream sell-offs
On August 5, Petrobras said that the sale of its stakes in three Espiritu Santo Basin elds had reached the binding stage. In a statement, it explained that it intended to send o cial invi- tations to quali ed bidders that were interested the Peroa, Cangua and Malombe (BM-ES-21) fields. The NOC has an exploration licence for Malombe and has the right to explore and develop Peroa and Cangua.
en on August 8 Petrobras said in a sepa- rate statement that its biofuels subsidiary had arranged to unload its 50% stake in Belem Bio- energia Brasil (BBB). It reported that it was sell- ing its equity to a subsidiary of Portugal’s Galp. e deal is worth BRL24.7mn ($XXmn) and would bring Galp Bioenergy’s stake up from 50% to 100%.
On August 9, the NOC revealed that it had signed a contract for the sale of its stakes in a
group of onshore and shallow-water oil elds known as the Macau Cluster 
Petrobras
P4
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 32 14•August•2019