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