Petrobras pulls back spending

Spotlight falls on pre-salt production as Latin American NOC dials down capex

Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras has downgraded its five-year upstream spending programme. The firm in September cut $14-24bn from an earlier capex budget of $64bn after reviewing the economic impact of the downturn on its portfolio. Lowering gross debt has been a key priority for Petrobras since it peaked at over $100bn in 2015. Over the past four years, austerity measures and an aggressive divestment strategy have slashed $39bn from the company’s debt obligations. And it plans to reach an ambitious gross debt target of $60bn by 2022—a 34pc reduction from last year. But debt has again started to rise this year. Petrobras added another $4bn to gross debt over the first two quarter