PETRONAS Petróleo Brasil (PPBL), a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), has agreed to acquire 50% stake in the Tartaruga Verde field and Module III of Espadarte field, both located offshore Brazil, from Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) for $1.29bn.
Image: PETRONAS to acquire 50% stake in Tartaruga Verde and Espadarte Module III from Petrobras. Photo: courtesy of D Thory/Pixabay.
The Brazilian national oil company will retain 50% stake and will continue to be the operator of the Tartaruga Verde field and the Espadarte field Module III, which are contained in the deep waters of the Campos Basin.
Tartaruga Verde entered into production last June and currently produces nearly 103 thousand bpd of oil and 1.2 million m³/day of gas. Production from the offshore Brazilian field in the C-M-401 concession block is being carried out by the Cidade de Campos dos Goytacazes MV29 floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.
Module III, on the other hand, is an area of the producing Espadarte oil and gas field. It is planned to be developed in an integrated way with Tartaruga Verde field.
First oil from Module III is targeted to be drawn in 2021.
Petrobras has been pursuing the sale of 50% stake in the Tartaruga Verde field and Module III of Espadarte field since April 2018.
The completion of the deal with PPBL will be based on meeting closing conditions like the approval from the Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense and the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels.
PETRONAS stated: “The acquisition of equity in Tartaruga Verde and Module III of Espadarte fields marks an important milestone for PETRONAS as the company diversifies and expands its oil business portfolio in South America.”
Petrobras has signed two other agreements apart from the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with PPBL.
The company executed an agreement to sell 90% of its stake in Brazilian natural gas transportation network Transportadora Associada de Gás (TAG) to the ENGIE and Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) consortium for $8.6bn.
Earlier this month, an announcement of the consortium winning the bid for the stake in TAG was made.
In the third deal, Petrobras agreed to sell its full stake in 34 onshore production fields in the Brazilian state Rio Grande do Norte to Potiguar E&P, a subsidiary of Petrorecôncavo, for $384.2m.
Petrobras CEO Roberto Castello Branco said: “Today is an important day for Petrobras with the execution of three relevant transactions. Continued portfolio management contributes to improving capital allocation, thereby increasing value creation for our shareholders, as well as making it possible to reduce the company’s indebtedness and cost of capital.”