Petrobras announces a partnership with the Chinese in Comperj

Petrobras announced on Wednesday 04, a possible refining partnership with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which concerns the petrochemical complex of Rio de Janeiro (Comperj). The Chinese company is already a partner of the state-owned company in the giant field of Libra in the pre-salted basin of Santos Basin and in Peroba, one of the most disputed pre-salted auctions last year.

A week after Federal Supreme Court (STF) Minister Ricardo Lewandowski banned the government from selling state-owned businesses without congressional approval. This move motivated Petrobras to suspend the sale of certain badets, such as the Associated Gas Carrier (TAG), valued between US $ 8 billion and US $ 9 billion. Decision that affects the $ 21 billion oil divestment target for the 2017-2018 biennium. Of this total, only 4.8 billion dollars were sold

The partnership announced Wednesday involves the construction of a refinery with the capacity to process 165,000 barrels per day (b / d) of oil at Comperj, Integrated with revitalization of the Marlim Field Cluster, formed by Marlim, Voador, Marlim Leste and Marlim Sul, who were once the stars of the Campos Basin and who now produce half of what they have done eight years ago. Marlim Leste, for example, who extracted 143 000 b / d of oil in 2010, produces only 70 000 b / d

The idea of ​​the agreement is to treat heavy oil Marlim at the refinery to be completed by the Chinese company, and according to Petrobrás is already 80% ready. But the capacity of 165,000 b / d leaves the Comperj refinery among the smallest of the company.

"We are taking a step closer to finding partners to complete the Comperj refinery, while guaranteeing new investments and revitalizing the Marlim field," Petrobras president Ivan Monteiro said in a statement. According to him, the partnership is a demonstration of how a financially sound and balanced Petrobras can have a positive impact on the Brazilian society and all its shareholders.

Uncertainties

For the director of the Brazilian Center of … Adriano Pires, the company is positive for the company and for Brazil, which is expanding its refining fleet.He noted, however, that only a public company could reach an agreement with Petrobras with Increasing uncertainty in the Brazilian oil and gas sector after the truckers' strike and the decision of the Minister of the STF

"C is a good news seen e of this lamentable Lewandowski decision, "said Pires at the Broadcast (real-time news service of the state group) and at the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper. "This partnership is interesting given the scenario we know in Brazil today, with Lewandowski, price control, which keeps investors away, only a public company to take this risk, only let the Chinese," was he says, explaining that unlike private enterprise, the state corporation does not just look at profit and has a more strategic vision. In the case of the Chinese government, the goal is to create jobs and sell equipment in Brazil

According to Mr. Pires, these regulatory changes divert investors, who had already withdrawn from the sector. refining after the intervention of the government in the price adjustment. Petrobras daily for diesel. Without parity with the global market, investors are worried about not making the activities of the billionaires building and operating a refinery profitable. In addition to diesel, the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) has launched an unprecedented contribution to study the opportunity of providing a period to evaluate the periodicity of adjustment fuel, considered a government intervention.

The director of CBIE said that for Brazil, the news is positive, as it expands the refining fleet, the sector that has increased the least after the opening of the oil market in 1997. Today Today, Petrobras has a monopoly on refineries, with 98% of the market. "It is important for the supply." The information is from the journal O Estado de S. Paulo