Petrobras inks downstream sale
Divestments have struggled to get going amid tough economic conditions, but could the first refinery sale prise open the door?
Brazilian state-owned Petrobras has finally kickstarted its refining divestment programme by agreeing to offload the Landulpho Alves refinery (RLAM)—the highest capacity facility available at auction—to UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala for $1.65bn. The transaction remains subject to state approval but would be the first of eight Petrobras refineries scheduled for offloading. In 2019, Brazilian anti-trust regulator Cade mandated that half of Petrobras’ refining capacity—equivalent to 1.1mn bl/d—must be divested, but the NOC had made little headway on this until early February. “The downstream divestment programme is a key part of Petrobras’ de-leveraging strategy over the next five years,”
Also in this section
17 January 2025
Supply glut or supply deficit are both plausible outlooks, with tariffs and sanctions among the key risks that could swing the pendulum
17 January 2025
European Commission is on its way to meeting clean energy goals, but energy security concerns and higher costs may give it second thoughts
17 January 2025
The CEO of QatarEnergy has highlighted the potential impact a new EU directive could have on energy exports to the continent
16 January 2025
The government’s resource nationalism is aggravating the NOC’s debt position and could yet worsen if also tasked with the decarbonisation shift
