A federal court in Brazil has ruled that it is OK for state oil firm Petrobras to go ahead with the sales of two offshore oilfields, Ceara and Sergipe in the northeast of the country.
The Federal Regional Tribunal of the Fifth Region said the heavily indebted and scandal-plagued company could resume the sales of the two shallow water fields. These sales are part of Petrobras’ divestment strategy as it tries to improve its balance sheet, partly through selling assets.
Even with this decision in its favour, Petrobras must still await the approval of another court, the Federal Court of Audit (TCU). It was the TCU that suspended the sale process pending assessment of the transparency of the divestment process.
