Petrobras Puts More Oilfields Up For Sale

Petrobras is putting up for sale a total of 26 onshore and shallow water concessions and a small refinery, Brazil’s state-held oil firm said as it aims to divest non-core assets to raise cash and focus on deepwater and ultra-deepwater developments.

As part of a multi-year divestment program to cut its massive debt, Petrobras has now launched the teaser stage for the sale of all its stakes in a set of 26 onshore and shallow water exploration and production (E&P) concessions in the Potiguar Basin in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, jointly called Potiguar Cluster. The Clara Camarão Refinery in the same state is also included in the sale, Petrobras said in a securities filing.

The Clara Camarão refinery has a nameplate capacity to process 39,600 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, while the average production of the Potiguar Cluster between January and June this year was around 23,000 bpd of oil and 124,000 cubic meters per day of natural gas.

The sale of the oilfields and the refinery “is in line with the portfolio optimization strategy and the improvement of the company’s capital allocation, increasingly concentrating its resources in deep and ultra-deep waters, where Petrobras has demonstrated great competitive edge over the years,” the Brazilian company said.

Just last week, Petrobras launched a new phase in the development of the first deepwater oil project since the start of the crisis, at the Mero field in the Santos Basin.

The crisis, however, has also had the Brazilian state oil major reportedly suspend preparations to sell a minority stake in a cluster of four offshore fields producing 230,000 bpd.

Petrobras has been selling non-core assets and minority stakes in oilfields in Brazil and elsewhere, aiming to cut its massive debt. But the coronavirus pandemic and the oil price crash that followed have upended Petrobras’s plans to proceed with a sale of a minority stake in the Marlim cluster of four oilfields.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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