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Brazil's Petrobras Pulls Plug on Refinery Joint-Venture with PdVSA

RIO DE JANEIRO–Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, late Friday finally pulled the plug on a refinery joint venture with erstwhile Venezuelan partner Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA. While the firm failed to call PdVSA by name, Petrobras said that negotiations with “interested parties” had failed to reach an agreement within a fixed time-frame. The Abreu e Lima refinery under construction in Brazil’s Pernambuco state was incorporated, making it easier to find potential partners, Petrobras said. The $17 billion refinery project was beset with bickering and delays between Petrobras and PdVSA since the project was first launched in March 2008, as part of bilateral agreements signed between then-presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chavez. Petrobras, however, pledged to build the refinery alone after PdVSA failed to get loan guarantees from the Brazilian National Development Bank to pay for the Venezuelan company’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Brazil’s Petrobras Pulls Plug on Refinery Joint-Venture with PdVSA

RIO DE JANEIRO–Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, late Friday finally pulled the plug on a refinery joint venture with erstwhile Venezuelan partner Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA. While the firm failed to call PdVSA by name, Petrobras said that negotiations with “interested parties” had failed to reach an agreement within a fixed time-frame. The Abreu e Lima refinery under construction in Brazil’s Pernambuco state was incorporated, making it easier to find potential partners, Petrobras said. The $17 billion refinery project was beset with bickering and delays between Petrobras and PdVSA since the project was first launched in March 2008, as part of bilateral agreements signed between then-presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chavez. Petrobras, however, pledged to build the refinery alone after PdVSA failed to get loan guarantees from the Brazilian National Development Bank to pay for the Venezuelan company’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Petrobras-led group wins Brazil oil auction with minimum bid

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian state-run energy company Petrobras teamed up with European oil majors and Chinese rivals on Monday to buy the country’s biggest-ever oil field with a lone bid at the minimum price, a disappointing outcome for a sale that was supposed to launch Brazil as a petroleum power. The auction, which proceeded as hundreds of protestors criticized the sale to private companies of the country’s natural resources, was notable because it sparked only a fraction of the appetite that was originally expected. Rather than attract multiple bidders and the many global energy players who had long expressed interest in fast-growing Brazilian discoveries, the auction for the giant offshore Libra oil area drew just one tepid bid from a consortium offering the minimum price allowed. Petroleo Brasileiro SA ( PETR4.SA ), as Petrobras is formally known, took 40 percent of the field in the auction, more […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple