Brazil's oil giant Petrobras could pocket US$14 billion from the government to settle a long-running dispute for a number of offshore oil fields that Petrobras has the rights to develop but not the financial means, Reuters reports citing a Petrobras regulatory filing.
The so-called transfer-of-rights area was assigned to Petrobras back in 2010 to extract 5 billion barrels of oil and gas based on the oil prices at the time. The complex provisions of the contract, however, included a review of the costs in the area after it was declared commercially viable in 2014.
Both parties-the government and Petrobras-have claimed that they are owed billions of U.S. dollars, and the oil company has also disputed the estimates of the reserves in the area made by the country's oil regulator, ANP.
The state oil firm has explored the area and found that a lot more oil lies in this low-risk offshore zone. There are estimates that the transfer-of-rights area could hold up to 15 billion barrels of oil in excess of the 5 billion barrels to which Petrobras was entitled to produce when the government transferred the area to the state firm in 2010.
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Now, Petrobras has indicated there is a good chance that they will find an end to the dispute and start looking for partners to develop these fields, but only after an audit court greenlights the settlement. Both the company and the government need to agree with the terms of the settlement for this to happen.
A separate Reuters report said Petrobras was already raising funds for the development of the transfer-of-rights area. The company will sell up to three issues of local unsecured debt to the tune of US$810 million (3 billion reias) that will be used in the development of the fields.
Brazil is already a hot spot for Big Oil companies because of its abundant oil and gas resources in the pre-salt zone. After the settlement of the transfer-of-rights dispute, it can become an even more attractive destination for Big Oil.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. More
Comments
currently trading at NYQ 15.24 (+1.23%) is expected to go as far as 72.00
The new president elected Jair Bolsonaro assigned the brazilian expert Roberto Castelo Branco to be the new Petrobras CEO, his first act was to fire 4 of the 7 directors of the company, those 4 were appointed by the "Partido dos trabalhadores" (workers party) that robbed Brazil for
thirteen years and are responsible for the biggest corruption case in all history of modern age where Petrobras was the biggest victim.
But that wasn't enought to break Petrobras, it's stocks price was 72.00 in 2008 (before the workers party) all the way to 3.00 in 2016, now in its crescent recovery only 6 days after the new president takes office its allready up 15%(!!).
Taking in to account that the new year started and we are expecting a raise on oil barrels price to at least 60usd/barrel becouse of the OPEC deals (starting this year) and stated declining production in the US and Saudi Arabia below the OPEC new goal..
Taking into account that US market is optimistic about the end of the China/US trade war, this will allow industrial growth and would increase the global demand for oil driving oil price up.
I'm a happy brazilian and everyone here can sense this "changing vibe" and the numbers never lie, Petrobras has been sweapt clean of every possible corrupt scheme and now its the safest company to invest in the oil business.