Brazil’s state oil firm Petrobras announced on Wednesday it has made a deal with Total to sell the French supermajor $2.2bn in assets, according to Reuters.
Debt-plagued and scandal-racked Petrobras has been liberally divesting itself and slashing budgets to reduce its red ink.
Among the assets in this sale Total will be acquiring stakes in two offshore oilfields in Brazil’s resource-rich Subsalt Polygon in the Santos basin.
The Subsalt fields are so called because they are oil and gas prospects that lie beneath a layer of mineral salts. The Polygon is a region of the Atlantic off Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro which is believed to contain 176bn barrels of oil and gas.
In this case Total is buying a 22.5% share in the BMS-11 block including the Iara fields – Petrobras retains a 42.5% stake and will continue to be the operator. And Total gets 35% of the BMS-9 block which it will also operate. Petrobras keeps a 10% stake there.
The first $1.6bn of the $2.2bn amount will be paid within two months with the remaining $600m to be staggered over a longer period.
