Bid for Petrobras’ Bahia refinery

SAO PAULO: Indian conglomerate Essar Group made a binding offer to Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA to buy the country’s second-largest oil refinery, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.

Petrobras, as Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer is known, has received at least two offers for the 323,000 barrels per day Landulpho Alves refinery in Bahia, known as Rlam. The other is from Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company .

If Essar’s bid is successful, it would mark the group’s debut in Brazil. Essar has invested roughly Us$28bil in assets.