{"id":260770,"date":"2019-10-27T07:42:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T10:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=260770"},"modified":"2019-10-27T12:07:29","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T15:07:29","slug":"petrobras-seeking-gulf-buyers-for-its-refineries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/petrobras-seeking-gulf-buyers-for-its-refineries\/","title":{"rendered":"Petrobras seeking Gulf buyers for its refineries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abu Dhabi \u2013 Brazil\u2019s state-run oil company Petrobras is looking for buyers for its refineries and partners to bid in tenders in the Gulf, its Institutional Relations executive director Roberto Ardenghy said (pictured, 3rd<\/sup>, left to right<\/em>). Ardenghy spoke at Brazil-UAE business seminar this Sunday (27) in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in the sidelines of president Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s visit to the country. \u201cWe\u2019re here to showcase our assets [on sale] and partnership opportunities,\u201d he told ANBA.<\/p>\n

He explained that Petrobras is seeking partners to form consortiums with and join upcoming oil and gas bidding rounds in Brazil. November 6 will see \u201cthe biggest round yet\u201d for previously untendered pre-salt area assets, with four \u201cmassive\u201d fields on offer. \u201cAnd Petrobras is already active there, so the risk is lower,\u201d Ardenghy said.<\/p>\n

The 6th<\/sup> pre-salt bidding round for production-sharing contracts will be held the following day, November 7, by Brazil\u2019s National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP). \u201cThese are two available options for joint investment with Petrobras,\u201d the executive said.<\/p>\n

So far, 14 companies have registered to bid in the November 6 tender, and 17 in the November 7 one. Ardenghy confirmed that consortium talks are ongoing with Gulf companies and said Petrobras is seeking out funds to tap into the pre-salt, which he dubbed the \u201cbiggest mineral reserve in the world\u201d right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are [pre-salt] wells putting out 58,000 barrels per day. These output levels are second only to the Middle East. Average well output is 17,000 bpd,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During the seminar, Bolsonaro and Chief of Staff Onyx Lorenzoni mentioned the November 6 pre-salt auction and called on UAE investors to join. \u201cIn a few days we\u2019ll have one of the biggest pre-salt auctions in our country, and we\u2019re inviting everyone to participate,\u201d the president declared. Lorenzoni called the tender \u201cthe biggest oil and gas auction in the West.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Middle East\u2019s Qatar Petroleum<\/a> has already won four exploration and production tenders in Brazil, in partnership with other industry players.<\/p>\n

Refineries<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ardenghy also said Petrobras is looking for industry players in the region to purchase its refineries. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of interest in refining here,\u201d he asserted. According to him, Petrobras, which handles 98% of refining activities in Brazil, is looking to sell half its assets. Refineries are on sale in Rio Grande do Sul, Paran\u00e1, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Rio Grande do Norte, Cear\u00e1, and Amazonas.<\/p>\n

The director explained that the plan is to allow 100% ownership of assets and the associated inbound\/outbound logistics. These assets are worth \u201cdozens of billions of dollars.\u201d \u201cWe have been getting non-binding offers. There\u2019s a lot of interest here,\u201d he said. Investors elsewhere in the Gulf are also interested. \u201cThe industry is interested, and I am here to emphasize it even further. They have a lot of experience in refining,\u201d Ardenghy said, adding that, being the world\u2019s fifth biggest refining market, Brazil is an attractive country.<\/p>\n

Debt<\/strong><\/p>\n

The executive went on to say that at USD 86 billion, Petrobras has a high debt profile, and that besides bringing that debt down, it needs to gather up resources to invest in exploration and production. To this end, Petrobras is on an \u201caggressive asset sale-based cost-cutting and divestment drive.\u201d The company has raised USD 13.3 billion via \u201cdivestments\u201d to date this year, and expects to see USD 15 billion by the end of 2019.<\/p>\n

Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arab Chamber<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Brazilian state-run oil company\u2019s Institutional Relations director Roberto Ardenghy, who joined a seminar concurrent with president Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s trip to the UAE, also said the company is looking for partners to bid in tenders with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1454,"featured_media":260763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[11909,9684,11910,11346,9576,10161,12313,1964,10156,2545,9598,12021,9595,9579],"class_list":{"0":"post-260770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-abu-dhabi-en-2","9":"tag-abu-dhabi-en","10":"tag-arabia-saudita-en","11":"tag-bolsonaro-en","12":"tag-gas-en","13":"tag-gulf-en","14":"tag-jair-bolsonaro-en-2","15":"tag-oil","16":"tag-petrobras-en","17":"tag-pre-salt","18":"tag-qatar-en","19":"tag-qatar-petroleum-en","20":"tag-saudi-arabia-en","21":"tag-uae-en"},"wps_subtitle":"The Brazilian state-run oil company\u2019s Institutional Relations director Roberto Ardenghy, who joined a seminar concurrent with president Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s trip to the UAE, also said the company is looking for partners to bid in tenders with. ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}