MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petrobras and French oil company Total have signed agreements that will bring financial benefits to the Brazilian company, as per BrazilGovNews.
The Brazilian State oil company will receive USD 2.22 billion with the partnership. According to a statement issued after the deal, USD 400 million refer to a line of credit.
The signed agreements, according to Petrobras, seal the strategic alliance between the two companies. The partnership comprises joint activities in upstream and downstream segments, as well as actions to strengthen technological cooperation on operations, research and technology.
Upstream is the stage of oil production that encompasses prospecting, identifying and locating oil sources, in addition to the transportation of extracted oil to the refineries where it is processed. Downstream involves the logistics of transporting products from refineries to final consumption.
The alliance comprises multiple agreements, including the assignment to Total of 22.5% of Petrobras’ stake in the concession area called Lara and of 35% of Petrobras’ stake and operations in the concession area of the Lapa field in Block BM-S-9 (Petrobras will retain 10% of the latter).
Contracts were also signed for the sale to Total of 50% of Petrobras' stake in Termobahia, including thermal plants Romulo de Almeida and Celso Furtado, both located in the state of Bahia.
After the signing, Pedro Parente and Patrick Pouyanne, the CEOs of Petrobras and Total, issued a joint statement: "We are excited about our strategic alliance becoming a reality. This new partnership, together with strong technological cooperation, will create synergies and value by combining our operational excellence and reducing costs in our projects to the benefit of both companies. "
Petrobras and Total are currently partners in 19 oil exploration and production consortia. In Brazil, they are partners in the Libras area, a field located in the pre-salt layer of the Santos Basin. It was the first contract signed under the production sharing system.
Abroad, the two have also partnered for operations in the Chinook field (in the Gulf of Mexico, in the US), the Akpo deep-water field in Nigeria and the San Alberto and San Antonio/Itau gas fields in Bolivia, as well as for the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline.
As MRC informed before, Brazil's state-controlled oil producer Petrobras is seeking to sell its 5.8 billion Brazilian real (USD1.4 billion) stake in petrochemical producer Braskem SA. Petrobras hired Brazilian bank Banco Bradesco SA as a financial adviser and started to pitch the sale to foreign investors in 2016. Petrobras owns a 36% stake in Braskem, Latin America's largest petrochemical producer. The sale would help Petrobras meet its target of selling USD15.1 billion worth of assets in 2015-16, a key part of its plan to cut debt as oil prices plunge to 12-year lows.
Braskem S.A. produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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