Brazil’s troubled state oil giant Petrobras has sold off a chunk of its natural gas distribution business, known as Gaspetro, to Japanese firm Mitsui, according to Reuters.
In the deal Mitsui acquires 49% of Gaspetro for $501 million, a figure which allows Petrobras to meet its 2015 target of $700m for divestment of assets this year. Next year’s target is a hefty $14.4bn.
Petrobras, which is heavily involved in offshore oil and gas exploration, has been employing austerity and cost-cutting measures across the board in response to the slump in oil’s price and the effects of its own huge corruption scandal which dented its bottom line to the tune of at least $2bn. It was already the world’s most indebted oil company.
