Court allows Petrobras to sell shallow water assets

Brazilian court has allowed the state-owned oil & gas company Petrobras to continue the sale process of its shallow water fields, located off states of Sergipe and Ceará, Brazil. 

Petrobras informed on Monday that a Regional Federal Court issued a decision on January 18, 2017, to grant suspensive effect to Petrobras’ appeal in the divestment project regarding the transfer of rights in the set of shallow water fields, as reported in July 2016.

Nine concessions, representing 0.5% of Petrobras’ total production, were being offered.

With the favorable decision of the court, Petrobras said it may continue with this divestment project. The company, however, will only be able to sign an agreement after the Brazilian Federal Accounting Court (TCU) merit decision regarding the required adjustments requested by this authority over Petrobras’ divestment process.

Petrobras reiterated that the company is working on improving its divestment processes with the purpose of adjusting them to TCU’s determinations and expects to conclude this reformulation, in the shortest time possible, with the appreciation of that court, without changing Petrobras’ divestments and partnerships targets included in the Strategic Plan/ 2017-2021 Business and Management Plan.

In related news, a group of international investors, who suffered billions of dollars in losses in their investments in Petrobras, filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Brazilian company.