Petrobras Advances Sale of REMAN, LUBNOR Refineries
Potential buyers qualified for this phase—which will include the Isaac Sabbá refinery (REMAN) in Amazonas, Lubrificantes e Derivados de Petróleo do Nordeste (LUBNOR) in Ceará, and Shale Industrialization Unit (SIX) in Paraná, as well as their corresponding logistics assets—will receive a process letter with detailed instructions on the divestment process, including guidelines for due diligence and submission of binding proposals, Petrobras said on Jan. 31.
The operator, however, did not disclose identities of potential qualifying buyers.
Located in Manaus, Amazonas, REMAN has a processing capacity of 46,000 b/d and includes a storage terminal, while LUBNOR—located in Fortaleza, Ceará—has a processing capacity of 8,000 b/d and is one of the national leaders in asphalt production, as well as the only one in Brazil to produce naphthenic lubricants.
Located
in São Mateus do Sul, Paraná, SIX has an installed capacity of 6,000 b/d, with
assets that include a mine in one of the largest oil shale reserves in the
world and a shale processing plant.
This
latest announcement follows Petrobras’s earlier commitment to sell all eight of
its Brazilian refineries with total refining capacity of 1.1 million b/d first
announced on Apr. 26 based on a schedule agreed upon by the parties, according
to the terms of the company’s divestment methodology, pursuant to regulatory
provisions, subject to the economic-financial assessments relating to each
asset, as well as the technical, legal, financial, and compliance requirements
by potential buyers (OGJ Online, June 12, 2019).
The
earlier agreement also provides that the following refineries considered as
potential competitors may not be acquired by the same buyer or companies within
the same economic group:
·
Refinaria Landulpho Alves (RLAM) and Refinaria Abreu
e Lima (RNEST).
·
Refinaria Presidente Getulio Vargas (REPAR) and
Refinaria Alberto Pasqualini (REFAP).
·
Refinaria Gabriel Passos (REGAP) and RLAM.
Additionally,
Petrobras agreed that the schedule and fulfillment of the commitments assumed
with Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) will be
followed up by an external agent hired by Petrobras according to specifications
to be established by mutual agreement.
Petrobras
said it believes execution of the agreement consolidates the cooperation
efforts between CADE and the company, providing greater legal certainty to the
announced divestment program.
In
late December 2019, Petrobras initiated the binding phase related to the sale
of its 166,000-b/d REGAP refinery and associated logistical assets—including
more than 720 km of pipelines—at Betim, Minas Gerais, Brazil, near Belo
Horizonte (OGJ Online, Dec. 23, 2019).
The Brazilian operator also previously completed sale of its Pasadena Refining System Inc.—including the 110,000-b/d refinery in Pasadena, Tex.—and PRSI Trading LLC businesses to Chevron USA Inc. in May 2019 (OGJ Online, Jan. 31, 2019).