Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA has finalized the sale of its shares in Petrobras Oil & Gas B.V. (PO&GBV), the company producing oil in Nigerian oil assets, thereby ending its activities in Africa.
The Brazilian state-controlled firm had 50 percent of the company, in a joint venture with BTG Pactual E&P B.V, and sold its shares to Canada’s Africa Oil Corp. for $1.45 billion.
BTG, Brazil’s largest independent investment bank owns the other 50percent stake in Petrobras Africa, whose core assets are stakes in offshore fields that produce Nigerian oil grades Agbami, Egina and Akpo.
According to a note released by Petrobras, the transaction “is in line with the optimization of the portfolio and the improvement in the company’s capital allocation, aiming at generating value for its shareholders.”
The primary assets of Petrobras are an indirect 8 percent interest in Oil Mining Lease 127, which contains the producing Agbami Field with 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity, operated by affiliates of Chevron Corporation, and an indirect 16 percent interest in OML 130, operated by affiliates of TOTAL S.A., which contains the producing Akpo and Egina fields.
Akpo produces 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) of condensate, while Egina, which started last year, will produce roughly 200,000 bpd. Agbami, with 250,000 bpd of light, sweet crude, is the most prized part of the asset.
In November last year, BusinessDay reported the sale of Petrobras Nigerian oil assets is not going according to plans after Petrobras, former partner, Africa Oil, said it would conclude the $1.5 billion purchase alone, but the company is scrambling for cash, a factor that may yet further delay the sale.
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