Petrobras Puts Refinery in the US up for Sale

05/11/2017 - 11h56

With a series of environmental problems and investigated by Brazil's Lava Jato operation, the refinery in Pasadena, in the U.S., was included in Petrobras's plan to sell assets.

The Brazilian state-owned oil giant also decided to sell its participation in the controversial Petrobras África, which has a partnership with BTG Pactual bank.

The board of directors also approved the new methodology used in the negotiations of disinvestments with which Petrobras expects to make some US$ 21 billion by 2018.

The sales of assets had been suspended in December by Brazil's Federal Accounts Auditing Court (TCU), which ordered Petrobras to adopt a more transparent model in its negotiations.

Petrobras did not list all its assets included in the new phase of the disinvestment plan, citing only the Pasadena refinery and the operations in Africa.

It is expected that refinement assets in Brazil also will be included in the package, as well as a share of BR Distribuidora, the biggest subsidiary of Petrobras.

Located in the American state of Texas, the refinery in Pasadena is the target of investigations in the Lava Jato operation due to provisions in its contracts that benefited a former partner of Petrobras, Belgium's Astra Oil. After a dispute in court, Petrobras paid US$ 1.2 billion for the refinery, 27 times more than Astra Oil had paid for it one year before the arrival of Petrobras.

The refinery is also the target of an investigation by American courts due to environmental infringements of the limit of pollutants provided for in its environmental license.

The refinery is nearly a hundred years old and has had a series of accidents in recent years. Petrobras África was created in 2013 after the merger of Petrobras operations in the continent.

Half of the company was sold for US$ 1.5 billion to bank owner André Esteves's BTG. Esteves was arrested in 2015 following accusations of trying to obstruct the Lava Jato investigations.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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