MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said on Monday it extended a deadline to sign nondisclosure agreements for partnerships in refining, as requested by interested parties, reported Reuters.
Five companies have signed nondisclosure agreements and others have expressed interest, Petrobras said in a securities filing, without naming the firms. The new deadline was not disclosed.
Petrobras’ planned sale of a 60 percent stake in four refineries, announced on April 19, is part of a wider effort to unload assets to reduce debt. The refineries will be sold in two regional blocks, in the Northeast and in the southern region, with two refineries each.
Petrobras has said it will retain about 75 percent of its domestic refining capacity after the privatization of the four units.
Reuters reported on May 24 that Petrobras would accept nonbinding proposals by July. Among the potential bidders were buyout firms Patria Investimentos Ltda, which has an investment agreement with Blackstone Group LP, and First Reserve Management LP, as well Brazilian firms Ultrapar Participacoes SA and Cosan SA Industria e Comercio.
As MRC wrote previously, in October 2017, Petrobras’s minority stakes in Braskem and Deten Quimica was excluded from Petrobras’s divestment program, according to a government decree published in Brazil’s Official Gazette. The decree prevented Petrobras from immediately selling its minority stake in Braskem, which had been announced last year. A new decree will be required to release the stock sale.
Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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