Brazil’s state oil company has bought three exploration blocs in the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, which marks its return to Africa.
The assets were previously owned by Shell, Reuters reported.
After the deal, Petrobras will hold 45 per cent stakes in two of the blocs and a 25 per cent stake in the third one.
In July, Petrobras’ chief financial officer Sergio Caetano Leite told Bloomberg the company was on the lookout for potential asset acquisitions after spending years selling off stakes in upstream and downstream businesses.
“Petrobras had a divestment program,” Leite told Bloomberg.
“The company has now changed sides of the table.”
Petrobras reported in May that its gross debt was $53.3 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2023, the lowest level since 2010.
Any additional investments in asset acquisitions will not put Petrobras into more debt, Leite told Bloomberg.
Then, in November, Petrobras announced it had budgeted $102 billion in capital spending for the next five years, with the bulk of the sum to be spent on a boost in oil and gas exploration.
The five-year investment plan is a 31% increase on Petrobras’s budget for the previous five years and also an increase on earlier spending plans for the 2024-2028 period, which totaled $85 billion.
Of the latest total, some 72% will go towards boosting exploration and production, the company said. Plans are to increase the company’s average daily output to 3.2 million barrels from 2.8 million barrels at the moment.
