Opportunities have opened up for smaller E&P firms
Latin American divestment drive opens door to buyers
Portfolio rebalancing is helping boost M&A activity across the continent
Latin American NOCs were looking to move their portfolios down the cost curve even before the pandemic hit. But extreme market volatility over the past year—combined with the threat posed by the energy transition—has accelerated this trend, creating investment opportunities for many smaller E&P firms. Brazilian state oil company Petrobras is leading divestment activity in the region. The NOC has offloaded around 150 oil and gas fields over the past three years. And the company hopes to sell down its stakes in another 118. Petrobras’ upstream focus is on deepwater pre-salt production, boosted by falling lifting costs. In Q1, the Brazilian operator agreed to offload the Miranga cluster of
Also in this section
12 June 2025
Asian and European interest gathers pace as Trump throws his weight behind frontier state
12 June 2025
The government is optimistic that increasing offshore activity and exploration will help revive flagging production, despite energy security fears
12 June 2025
Tariffs, AI, critical minerals and emerging markets all raise fundamental policy questions
