How many (and which have already generated business) are the partnerships of Petrobras

 

April 12, 2018

Petrobras announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BP to complement and reaffirm the purpose of a letter of intent signed in October last year. The letter was signed by the president of the state company, Pedro Parente, and BP president Robert Dudley in London.

“This is a partnership that is based on common values, which both companies believe and share as business principles,” said Parente. “We started this joint action in the last auctions and we expect to extend and expand these business opportunities beyond exploration and production,” he said.

BP and Petrobras, after the deal closed in October last year, jointly closed the Peroba and Alto de Cabo Frio areas at the 3rd pre-salt auction, which was held in October of last year. Petrobras is the operator of both areas and BP has 40% and 50% in the projects, respectively. Currently, Petrobras and BP are partners in 16 exploration blocks in Brazil.

Petrobras has been making strategic partnerships since the arrival of Pedro Parente at the company’s command. Some of them resulted in new businesses, such as BP, and others in divestitures, as was the case with Statoil, in the Carcará and Roncador projects.

Below is an overview of Petrobras strategic partnerships:

 

Galp

On October 11, 2016, Petrobras and Galp signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the objective of expanding cooperation between the two companies, consolidating its strategic alliance. They study potential partnerships in exploration, production development and oil and gas infrastructure in regions of common interest around the world. This agreement also includes a joint training and research program focusing on deepwater carbonate reservoirs.

 BP

On October 31, 2017, Petrobras and BP signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to identify and evaluate joint business opportunities in assets and ventures in Brazil and abroad, which include cooperation in exploration & production, refining, transportation and marketing of gas, LNG, oil trading, lubricants, aviation fuel, energy generation and distribution, renewable energy, technology and low carbon initiatives, aiming at the development of a potential strategic alliance between the companies

The companies participated together in the 3rd round of ANP bidding for the pre-salt, buying the exploration and production rights for the Alto Cabo Frio Central block in a 50% -50% consortium, and in the Peroba block together with the CNODC, a subsidiary of CNPC, in a consortium of 40% Petrobras, 40% BP and 20% CNODC.

Statoil

In July 2016, Petrobras announced its first sale of a pre-salt field. The state-owned company dismantled its 66% stake in the BM-S-8 block, which is the discovery of Carcará, in the Santos Basin, for $ 2.5 billion to Statoil. In February, Statoil said it intends to start producing in the area between 2023 and 2024. Will it be the Brazilian Johan Sverdrup?

In September 2017, Petrobras and Statoil signed a Preliminary Agreement to evaluate cooperation opportunities aligned with their business strategies. The two aimed to work in partnership with the objective of expanding the reserves of mature fields in deep waters, with an initial focus on the post-salt region of the Campos Basin. The two oil companies, which are already partners in ten blocks in the exploration phase in Brazil, intend to optimize the use of natural gas, including the area of ​​BM-C-33, in which Statoil is the operator. Thus, the agreement also contemplates the general principles for the sharing of gas infrastructure of the Campos Basin.

In December of the same year, Petrobras and Statoil announced that the Norwegians would pay R $ 2.35 billion for a 25% stake in the Roncador field, in the Campos Basin. Statoil has committed to pay an additional U$ 550 million in contingent investments for recovery projects in the field, the main partnership between the two companies.

ExxonMobil

Also in December of last year Petrobras and ExxonMobil signed a Memorandum of Understanding for strategic alliance to identify and evaluate potential business opportunities. The idea is to study areas of mutual interest where they can add experiences in all sectors of the oil and gas production value chain, including opportunities for cooperation in exploration, production, gas and chemicals, both inside and outside Brazil.

Since then, Petrobras and ExxonMobil have participated in and bought areas together in the 14th and 15^th bidding rounds of ANP. In the first auction the two companies took together five areas and three others in the second auction. All areas of the partnership are in the Campos Basin.

CNPC

Petrobras and China’s CNPC signed a Memorandum of Understanding on July 4, 2017 to start a strategic partnership. The companies committed themselves to jointly evaluating opportunities in Brazil and abroad in key areas of mutual interest, benefiting from their capabilities and experience in all segments of the oil and gas chain, including the potential structuring of financing.

CNPC is a partner of Petrobras in the Libra project, the country’s first production sharing area, which began production in November, and also participated with BP and Petrobras , in the consortium that bought the 3rd pre-salt auction the Peroba block, in the Santos Basin.

The two companies are negotiating a stake in Comperj, a Rio de Janeiro project that Petrobras only wants to resume when it gets a strategic partner to share risks. Last month, the state-owned company contracted the Shandong Kerui Consortium and Potential Method to resume work on the Comperj Natural Gas Processing Unit. The contract is valued at around R $ 2 billion. The goal is for the unit to be operational by 2020, with capacity to process up to 21 million cubic meters per day of natural gas.

Total

On December 21, 2016, Petrobras and Total signed a Master Agreement, two months after announcing a memorandum of understanding to study joint opportunities. Under the agreement, Total made its arrival in the country’s pre-salt projects and became the first private oil company to operate in the Santos Basin’s pre-salt production in a business venture that required investments of US $ 2.2 billion by the French oil company.

The closed contracts are:

– Assignment of 22.5% rights of Petrobras to Total, in the Iara concession area (Sururu, Berbigão and Oeste de Atapu fields, which are subject to unitization agreements with the area known as the Entorno de Iara, under an assignment of rights regime, in which Petrobras holds a 100% stake), in Block BM-S-11. Petrobras will continue as operator and hold the largest stake in this area, with 42.5%.

– Assignment of 35% rights from Petrobras to Total, as well as the operation, in the area of ​​the Lapa field concession in Block BM-S-9, with Petrobras holding 10%. The Lapa field is in the production phase, and began its operation in December 2016.

– Sale of a 50% stake of Petrobras to Total in Termobahia, including the thermal plants Rômulo de Almeida and Celso Furtado, located in Bahia. The two thermals are linked to the regasification terminal, located in São Francisco do Conde, Bahia, where Total will have access to the regasification capacity to supply gas for thermoelectric plants.

The companies also pledged to deepen their joint activities abroad, with Petrobras having the option of taking a stake in the Perdido Foldbelt area in the Mexican sector of the Gulf of Mexico.