Petrobras NEWS

RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO: Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras yesterday formally elected Jose Mauro Coelho as its chief executive for a one-year term, ending weeks of turmoil in which the government struggled to fill the top position.

Joaquim Silva e Luna, the new chief executive of Brazil's Petrobras, will look to respect the company's current pricing policy and keep investing in deepwater assets, he said at his swearing-in ceremony on Monday.The comments by the former army general signaled that Petrobras' incoming administration will attempt to maintain some form of continuity with the policies of the previous administration, which generally won market plaudits.

DOF Subsea has secured multiple new contracts worth $110m from Brazilian firm Petrobras. According to the contract, DOF Subsea will provide survey and inspection services within its core service lines. These operations will be performed in the Campos, Santos, and Espírito Santos basins, as well as Marlin Field. The contract works are expected to start in the fourth quarter of this year.

Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Malaysia's MISC Berhad for the charter of a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, to be deployed at the Mero field. The Mero field is an ultra-deepwater oilfield situated approximately 180km offshore Rio de Janeiro in the Libra block, Brazil. The FPSO is expected to commence operation in the first half of 2024.

Brazilian oil company Petroleo Brasiliero SA, also known as Petrobras, will keep half its administrative staff working from home on a permanent basis, Reuters reported Wednesday. Workers will be allowed to opt-in for work-from-home status, the report said, adding demand from the company's workers seems to be high. This state-controlled firm is the first oil major to plan a widespread and permanent shift to remote work.

Brazil state-controlled oil major, Petrobras reported a fire incident at its Duque de Caixas refinery, forcing the authorities to operate the refinery at half of its installed capacity. However, the company said in an email late on Monday that the fire would not affect deliveries as the inventories were already equipped. The company also did not provide a date on when production will return to normal levels.

Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA has told shippers it will not hire any tankers that have visited Venezuela in the past 12 months, the state-controlled oil company said on Friday, signalling adherence to U.S. sanctions on the Latin American nation. Washington has said it could add to its sanctions list, a move that could disrupt sea-borne trade by sharply raising tanker rates.

Petrobras, the Brazilian state-controlled oil producer, posted an $11 billion impairment in the first quarter after revising down its outlook for crude prices. Even without the impairment, Petrobras reported a loss in the quarter on lower oil prices and the devaluation of Brazil’s real, the worst-performing major currency this year. While low oil prices have battered the industry, Petrobras ended up benefitting from the rebounding oil demand in China.

Experiencing higher than expected demand has compelled Petrobras to revisit its previous decisions. Brazilian state-run company will reverse its previously announced production cuts to meet the surprising growth in demand. The company said, "With demand for our products proving better than expected, we opted to gradually return average production to around 2.26 million bpd in April, while also increasing utilization rates at refineries".

Brazilian state-run Petrobras has completed the sale of 34 onshore oilfields in Rio Grande do Norte state to a subsidiary of PetroReconcavo SA. The Brazilian oil major informed about the $266 million deal through a market filing on Monday. The sale is consistent with Petrobras’ divestment strategy to lessen its debt load and focus more on deepwater exploration and production.

Brazil's Petrobras and Equinor have signed a memorandum of understanding on the joint development of natural gas business projects. Both the companies want to focus on enhancing the downstream value through thermoelectric generation. Petrobras informed that "The companies intend to combine efforts in investment in the natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and power generation segments".

Brazilian state-run major, Petrobras informed about a fire that broke out at its Revap refinery, in Sao Jose dos Campos. On Sunday afternoon, the tanks which store materials used to produce asphalt and fuel caught fire. A statement released by Petrobras read that the fire was brought under control without any casualties. Investigations on the incident are underway.

Oilfield services major, Weatherford has secured its biggest-ever fishing and intervention contract from Petrobras. The deal valued at $87 million will see Weatherford delivering fishing and intervention services to Petrobras. The four-year contract awarded to the Brazilian state-run firm also represents the largest single global award for this kind of work in the recent past.

Brazilian state-run, Petrobras recorded its highest-ever quarterly profits yesterday. The state-run behemoth registered 18.87 billion reais ($4.92 billion) in profits, easily beating analysts’ estimates. Petrobras’ largest share of profit came from asset sales. The firm cashed in about $12.764 billion from asset sales, which also includes $8.722 billion from gas pipelines sale to France’s Engie SA in the quarter.

Brazil's state-run company, Petrobras has decided to forfeit control of the biggest fuel distributor of the country, Petrobras Distribuidora. Under its new Chief Executive, the oil major went ahead with the privatisation drive and made this decision in a share offering due to be priced on Tuesday. The company holds a 25% share in Petrobras Distribuidora of which it will relinquish the control. It will bring in roughly $2 billion.

Brazilian oil major, Petrobras has put on sale its natural gas fields in Peroa and Cangoa shallow-water, apart from the Malombe deepwater exploration concession. The state-run firm informed in securities filing about initiating the teaser phase of the sale. The fields in Peroa and Cangoa yield about 900,000 cubic meters of gas per day, while the Malombe concession will most likely be declared commercially feasible in 2019.

Petrobras yesterday said in securities filing about making a payment of $700 million to US oilfield services provider, Vantage Drilling Company. The payment pertains to the termination of a 2015-contract awarded by Petrobras to Vantage. The payment comes after US court decision denied Petrobras’ request to revoke the result of an earlier arbitration in Holland. Petrobras has said that the payment does not imply an end to the litigation.

State-owned oil major, Petrobras informed in a regulatory filing yesterday of making natural gas discoveries in six deep-water fields in the Sergipe Basin. Petrobras will now plan a budget to finance production from the potential wells discovered in recent years. A Brazilian Newspaper has estimated that Petrobras could extract up to 20 million cubic meters of natural gas per day from the discovered fields.