Bankers covering Latin America are ready to put 2015 behind them, as a rout in oil prices and more negative headlines out of Brazil indicate December is likely to end with virtually no issuance out of the region. Hopes that opportunistic borrowers might try to exploit a narrow window before a key Federal Reserve meeting... Continue Reading →

Some of the biggest oil explorers in the Western Hemisphere are cutting budgets yet again to conserve cash as a plunge in energy markets shows no signs of abating. ConocoPhillips will reduce capital spending by 25 percent next year to $7.7 billion to protect the highest dividend yield among major U.S. oil producers, the Houston-based... Continue Reading →

12/09/2015 Rio de Janeiro, December 9, 2015 – Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras informs Moody’s Investors Service reviewed Petrobras' rating from Ba2 to Ba3, with negative outlook. According to Moody’s, this revision reflects elevated refinancing risks due to deteriorating industry conditions, difficulties to implement the divestment plan, high level of debt maturities in the coming... Continue Reading →

12/08/2015 Rio de Janeiro, December 8, 2015 – Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras hereby responds to Official Letter 524/2015/CVM/SEP/GEA-1, which requests the following clarifications: Official Letter no. 524/2015/CVM/SEP/GEA-1 “We refer to the article published in the Mercado (Market) section of Folha de São Paulo newspaper on December 4, 2015 entitled: “Without Sete’s rigs, Petrobras will... Continue Reading →

Petroleo Brasileiro SA lost as much as 29 billion reais ($7.6 billion) from a cartel of suppliers who bribed officials at the state-controlled producer to win contracts at inflated prices, Brazil’s audit court, known as TCU, said in a document Wednesday. The audit court’s figure surpasses Petrobras’s internal estimate of 6.2 billion reais. The audit... Continue Reading →

12/01/2015 Rio de Janeiro, December 1, 2015 – Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras hereby responds to CVM Official Letter 500/2015/CVM/SEP/GEA-1 requesting clarifications, as transcribed below: CVM Official Letter 508/2015/CVM/SEP/GEA-1 “We refer to the news item published on November 29, 2015 in the Poder (Power) section of the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, entitled Petrobras deu... Continue Reading →

Indebted state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA has ruled out bolstering its capital in the short term, a source with direct knowledge of the company's decision said on Monday. In a statement released later on Monday, Petrobras, as the company is known, denied media reports of talks for the Treasury to transfer hybrid securities to... Continue Reading →

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. says Petroleo Brasileiro SA is too strategic for the state to let it default and the earlier selloff in the Brazilian oil producer’s longest-dated bonds made them attractive. Petrobras has been battered by plunging crude prices, a corruption scandal enveloping its executives, a strike that curbed production and disappointing... Continue Reading →

There is no immediate need for a capital injection at Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras, Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said on Friday, downplaying media reports about a possible government plan to bolster the capital of the heavily indebted company. "They have enough cash to run," Levy told reporters on the sidelines of an infrastructure conference... Continue Reading →