Petrobras keeps selling assets with contracts already signed – 03/17/2023 – Market

Petrobras said this Friday (17th) that it sees no reason to suspend sales of assets with contracts already signed. There are currently five projects in this situation, including oil fields and Lubnor, a lubricant factory located in Ceará.

The announcement responds to the decision of the MME (Ministry of Mines and Energy), which determined the suspension of the sale of company assets until analysis by the board. The continuity of the processes already signed, however, depends on the approval of the board of directors.

Still in the campaign, the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government already promised to review the state-owned asset sales process, which was accelerated during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, contributing to the record distribution of dividends in the period.

In all, according to Dieese (Inter-union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies), Bolsonarist management at the state-owned company closed 64 operations, with a total value of US$ 33.9 billion (R$ 178 billion, at current exchange rates).

It was during this period that the company sold the refineries in Bahia and Amazonas. This last operation is questioned by distributors and consumers due to the impact on fuel prices in the state, which have been rising well above the national average.

The decision to suspend the negotiations was announced by the MME in early March, with the granting of a period of 90 days for the reassessment of the strategy by the command of the state-owned company.

“We carried out the preliminary study on the ongoing divestment processes and, so far, we have not verified the reasons why the projects in which contracts have already been signed (signing) should be suspended”, says the company.

In addition to Lubnor, this list includes onshore oil fields in Rio Grande do Norte and Espírito Santo and offshore fields on the coast of Espírito Santo. The first are negotiated with 3R Petroleum, the second with Seacrest, and the third with BW.

Lubnor is being negotiated with Grepar Participações. In these cases, the completion of the process depends on the approval of regulatory bodies.

The market assessment is that the company could face lawsuits with the cancellation of transactions. 3R, for example, even announced that it had agreed to a loan of US$ 500 million (R$ 2.6 billion) to complete the purchase of fields in Rio Grande do Norte.

The processes in which there were no signed contracts will continue to be analyzed, Petrobras said. There are currently 18 processes open or already under negotiation. Of these, 12 are in the binding phase, which means that Petrobras already has proposals.

In this more advanced phase there are oil fields, gas pipelines, thermal plants, assets in Colombia, mining rights, a methanol factory and Pbio (Petrobras Biocombustíveis), a company that operates in a segment that the state-owned company intends to resume operations.

Three refineries that Bolsonarist management intended to sell are still in the initial phase of negotiations – they are the units in Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Pernambuco. The Lula government has already announced that it intends to resume investment in refining in the country and should cancel these processes.