Oil traders line up for a slice of Petrobras

THE WORLD’S three largest oil traders are competing to buy the African arm of Brazil’s Petrobras that owns stakes in two major Nigerian offshore oil blocks, industry and banking sources with knowledge of the matter said, after submitting bids earlier this month.

Last November, state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro, known as Petrobras, launched the sale of 100 percent of Petrobras Oil & Gas, or Petrobras Africa, as part of the heavily-indebted company’s plan to offload $21 billion (R262.41bn) in assets in 2018, as it also faces a massive corruption scandal.

Petrobras holds half the shares in the company, while 40 percent are held by a subsidiary of Grupo BTG Pactual and 10 percent by Helios Investment Partners. Bankers have previously estimated the value of the Petrobras venture to be about $2bn.

The venture has stakes in two offshore blocks that contain two producing fields, the major Agbami field in OML 127, operated by a local Chevron affiliate, and the Akpo field in OML 130 operated by Total.

The sale has attracted the top trading firms which are always on the hunt for longterm crude supplies. Mercuria and BP had also its potential.

In early May, three consortiums, including the major trading companies, submitted bids to buy Petrobras Africa.

Vitol bid together with the oil upstream subsidiary of US private equity firm Warburg Pincus called Delonex and Canadian-listed Africa Energy Corporation, an oil and gas exploration firm that is part of Sweden’s Lundin Group.

Glencore joined with Nigerian listed firm Seplat and French firm Maurel & Prom that is majority-owned by the Indonesian government.