Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras has fallen $1.5 billion short of its two-year asset divestment target. The company blamed the court order blocking the sale of two fields to Australia’s Karoon for missing the target.
Petrobras said on Thursday that its divestments program has chalked up a total of $13.6 billion in the period 2015-2016, which is below the $15.1 billion target set for the two-year period.
This failure to meet the target was explained by the company’s obligation to comply with the preliminary injunction of the Sergipe Court that in November blocked the completion of the negotiations for sale of the Tartaruga Verde and Baúna fields, located in the Campos Basin and the Santos Basin, respectively, which were already at an advanced stage.
The potential transaction considered the sale of 100% of the stake in the Baúna field and 50% of the stake in the Tartaruga Verde field, where Petrobras would remain the field operator. However, the sale was blocked due to alleged non-compliance with relevant Brazilian regulatory requirements which require an open public bidding process.
As a result of missing the target, the company said that the target for the partnerships and divestments program in the period 2017-2018 will automatically be increased by the respective amounts, to the sum of $21 billion.
Petrobras is selling off assets to reduce its massive debt of $125 billion which is, according to Reuters, the largest in the global oil industry.
Just last week, Petrobras sold stakes in two pre-salt fields off Brazil for $2.2 billion to the French oil major Total under their cooperation agreement made in October this year.
Offshore Energy Today Staff