Brazil’s Petrobras to Exit Petrochemicals
Brazilian oil giant Petrobras is planning to exit its petrochemical investments and other activities as it seeks to accelerate its debt reduction. The troubled Rio de Janeiro-based group is now said to rank as the world’s most heavily indebted oil producer, with gross debt of around $124 billion. The move will allow Petrobras to concentrate on its core businesses of oil and gas exploration and production, and refining. President Pedro Parente said the next two years will be focused on recovering financial strength as an integrated energy company focused on oil and gas.
Petrobras has not specified which petrochemicals investments it will quit. However, it has already said it intends to exit biofuels and fertilizer production as well as the distribution of liquefied petroleum gas. Negotiations to sell the group’s stakes in PTA/PET producers Petroquimica Suape and Citepe to Mexican polyester producer Alpek began in July of this year. Petrobras also owns shares in polyolefins producer Braskem.
The state-controlled oil group plans to raise $19.5 billion from divestments in 2017 and 2018, in addition to the $15.1 billion targeted for the two years through the end of 2016. Parente revealed the plans as he outlined Petrobras’ strategy for the next five years. He has cut investment by 25% to $ 74.1 billion between 2017 and 2021, the lowest level in a decade, and he wants the group to lower its leverage from 5.3 times EBITDA in 2015 to 2.5 times in 2018.
The energy producer has been at the center of Brazil’s “Car Wash” corruption scandal which hit the headlines in March 2014, engulfing Petrobras executives and politicians from all major parties.
