Page 15 - LatAmOil Week 19 2020

LatAmOil VENEZUELA LatAmOil
 “The Nynas board of directors will have in total nine directors, including one director represent- ing PDVSA, two employee representatives and an independent chairman,” it added.
This shift is sufficient to remove Nynas from the US Treasury Department’s list of companies in violation of the sanctions on Venezuela. Nev- ertheless, the Swedish firm has agreed to meet certain conditions as long as PdVSA contin- ues to hold an equity stake. Specifically, it has pledged to inform the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of any changes in its board of directors or shareholders.
In turn, OFAC will no longer require US companies or individuals to obtain special per- mission to work with Nynas, the statement said.
Bo Askvik, the president of Nynas, was quoted as saying in the company statement that he was relieved to have resolved the matter. “This means an end to many years of having to carry the unfair burden for a Swedish company of being subject to US sanctions. This led to an increasingly deteriorating financial situation, which ultimately forced Nynas into reorganisa- tion at the end of last year,” he said. “Our focus now is to successfully end the ongoing re-or- ganisation process, and having exited sanctions,
BRAZIL
Petrobras puts Marlim cluster sale on hold amid pandemic
Nynas will be able to return to normal trading conditions and secure long-term financing.”
The Swedish company is currently the oper- ator of four specialised refineries in Europe. It produces tyre and rubber oils, transformer oils, process oils, bitumen and base oils. The com- pany has two facilities in Sweden (Nynashamn and Gothenburg) and one in Germany (Ham- burg) and has also set up a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell (UK/Netherlands) to operate the Eastham plant in the UK. ™
Nynas is a specialty products refiner (Photo: Nynas)
BRAZIL’S state energy firm Petrobras has reportedly put the sale of a large cluster of off- shore sites on hold, owing to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The company had said earlier this year that it intended to sell a minority stake in the Mar- lim cluster, which includes four oilfields in the pre-salt zone off the coast of Rio de Janeiro State. But the sale is now on hold, Reuters said last week, citing three sources with knowledge of the matter.
Petrobras has been keen to sell the Marlim cluster, which is one of its most attractive assets. Nevertheless, it has decided to shelve its plans in light of the global slide in oil prices that has followed lockdown measures, the sources told Reuters.
“With oil at its current levels, it doesn’t make sense to discuss such an interesting asset,” said one source with direct knowledge of the matter.
“When it can be sold depends on when prices come back,” he added. “The idea [of selling Mar- lim] didn’t die.”
Petrobras announced in December that it intended to unload $20-30bn worth of assets, including eight Brazilian refineries, in the
2020-2024 period. At the time, it said that the sell-off campaign might include the Marlim fields, a majority stake in the smaller Papa-Terra field and various legacy deepwater oilfields, as well as its Bolivian assets, its stake in the petro- chemical firm Braskem and its remaining stake in the fuel distribution firm BR Distribuidora.
In March, Petrobras kicked off the sale pro- cess for its 51% stake in the gas unit Gaspetro and for its holdings in the Merluza and Lagosta oilfields.
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Petroamazonas is run by the state (Photo: Acero Ande)
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