Petrobras' Next CEO Already Working Inside Company
Petroleo Brasileiro SA's next CEO is already working within the Brazilian state-controlled oil firm and is talking with employees about business plans, four sources told Reuters.Roberto Castello Branco, named by president-elect Jair Bolsonaro's economic team to take the helm at Petrobras, is expected to take up the chief executive role next year pending approval by the company's board.However, the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Castello Branco already had access to internal documents and had taken part in discussions around Petrobras' new five-year strategic plan, which was made public on Wednesday.
Ex-Keppel Lawyer Cooperated in Brazil Bribery Probe
A former lawyer at Keppel Corp Ltd's oil rig building business secretly pleaded guilty and cooperated with U.S. authorities before the Singapore-based company agreed to pay $422 million to settle charges it bribed Brazilian officials, according to court documents. Jeffery Chow, a former senior member of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd's legal department, cut a deal to help prosecutors in their probe of Keppel and other former executives, according to the documents unsealed on Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn. Chow, 59, pleaded guilty on Aug. 29 to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as part of his deal to cooperate.
BP to Move Ahead Quickly Offshore Brazil
Oil major BP Plc plans to move quickly to develop oilfields in the two blocks that it won in Brazil's deepwater oil region on Friday that it sees as a good bet in any price scenario, senior executives said. Brazil awarded six blocks out of eight in an auction on Friday for a region holding estimated reserves of more than 12 billion barrels. BP won two of the blocks in consortia, one with Brazil's state oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) and another with Petrobras and a unit of Chinese state oil firm CNPC. "We will be anxious to move forward now at pace," Bernard Looney, BP's chief executive for upstream, said after the auction.
Big Oil Heads to Rio for Deepwater Auction
Brazil will auction eight blocks in its coveted deepwater oil region on Friday, a prospect that has lured top executives from the world's biggest oil companies to Rio de Janeiro for the bidding round. The oil firms and Brazilian officials expect to see aggressive bidding for the more than 12 billion barrels of estimated oil reserves on offer. "It's going to be competitive," Bernard Looney, chief executive for upstream at oil major BP, told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Rio this week. The blocks are in a region with prolific oil production from fields known as pre-salt…
Ex-Brazilian Finance Minister to Stand Trial in Petrobras Graft Case
A former Brazilian finance minister and chief of staff for successive Workers Party (PT) governments was ordered on Thursday to stand trial on corruption and money laundering charges in an expanding graft probe around state-run oil company Petrobras. Anti-corruption Judge Sergio Moro ruled that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence to warrant a trial for Antonio Palocci, a party founder and confidant of two presidents, who was arrested in late September and has been jailed since. Investigators allege Palocci conspired with construction firm Odebrecht SA to pay 128 million reais ($39.5 million) from 2008 to 2013 to the party…
Petrobras Tests Investor Sentiment with $6.75 Bln Bond Sale
State-controlled Petróleo Brasileiro SA raised $6.75 billion on Tuesday through a sale of five- and 10-year dollar-denominated bonds, in a closely watched return to global capital markets after the suspension of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The bond sale is the first by any Brazilian company since last June and the first to test investor sentiment toward Brazil since Rousseff was removed from office last week to face an impeachment trial. Petrobras, as the company is known, also announced a plan to repurchase up to $3 billion of bonds maturing in 2018 and debt bearing interest of 8.375 percent.
Electric Bikes Take off in North Korea
Wheels have long been a sign of economic status for both individuals and nations, and on the lightly trafficked streets of Pyongyang, capital of impoverished and isolated North Korea, electric bicycles are the hottest new ride on the road. Almost unseen two years ago, the Chinese-made two-wheelers are a common site this week in the city, which hosts the first congress of the country's ruling Workers' Party in 36 years. Kim Jong Un, whose family has run the country for nearly 70 years, is expected to consolidate his leadership at the congress.
Brazil Police Arrest Former Senator in Petrobras Investigation
Brazilian police arrested former senator Gim Argello and launched raids in three states on Tuesday as part of a massive corruption investigation centered at state-run oil firm Petrobras, federal prosecutors said. The 28th round of police raids in the so-called "Operation Car Wash" was based on evidence that Argello took bribes to ensure executives at major infrastructure companies would not be called to testify at a congressional committee in 2014, prosecutors said. "These are alarming facts because they strongly suggest that a congressional investigative committee…
Petrobras Probes HR Practices, Paper Says
Brazil's state-run oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA is investigating practices in its human resources department that could have left the company vulnerable to billions of reais in liabilities, newspaper Valor Economico said on Monday. Petrobras' head of governance, João Elek, is leading the internal probe after an anonymous report of 11 potentially controversial measures taken by its HR department in recent years, which could have included special treatment to union members at top management levels, Valor said. Petrobras representatives did not immediately respond to Reuters emails requesting comments.
Brazil's Rousseff Resumes Talks with Lula
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff resumed talks on Wednesday morning with her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on him taking up a Cabinet post following inconclusive discussions late on Tuesday. Presidential aides said on Tuesday that Lula had decided to accept a ministerial position, a move that would also offer him protection in the short term from prosecutors who have charged him with money laundering and fraud. Reporters at the Alvorada presidential residence said Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa had also joined the meeting, along with other members of her inner circle.
Brazil Supreme Court Accepts Plea Deal for Rousseff Ally Amaral
Brazil's Supreme Court said on Tuesday it had accepted a plea agreement offered by prosecutors to Senator Delcídio do Amaral, a legislative ally of President Dilma Rousseff until he was arrested last year in a far-reaching corruption scandal. Leaks of the plea deal in recent weeks to Brazilian media said that Amaral, of the ruling Workers' Party, told prosecutors that both Rousseff and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had been aware of corruption at state-run energy company Petroleo Brasileiro SA. Amaral, the reports said, also told…
Pipeline Outage Almost Halves North Iraq Feb Exports
Oil exports from northern Iraq fell by almost half to an average of 350,067 barrels per day (bpd) in February due to an outage of the pipeline to Turkey, the Kurdistan region's Ministry of Natural Resources said on Monday. The nearly three-week outage is a big blow to Kurdistan, an autonomous region within Iraq that depends on revenue from its oil exports and is in the throes of an economic crisis induced by low crude prices. In February, the region received $303.9 million in revenue from its exports, the ministry said - less than half the 890 billion Iraqi dinars ($760 million) needed to cover a bloated public payroll.
Brazil Onshore Assets for Sale produce 2% of Output
Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said on Friday it plans to sell its rights to 104 onshore oil and gas concessions, part of efforts to raise cash and focus increasingly scarce capital on more profitable offshore assets. The company, known as Petrobras, said in a securities filing that 98 of the areas are producing fields. Oil output from those areas is about 35,000 barrels a day, or less than 2 percent of the company's petroleum output and less than some single wells in Petrobras' giant offshore Lula field. The Petrobras statement did not say how much natural gas the areas produce. Six of the areas are still in the exploratory phase.
Brazil's Petrobras Corruption Investigation Targets Lula
Federal prosecutors who uncovered a huge corruption scheme at oil company Petrobras are looking into whether Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received undue favors from engineering firms they are investigating. In a letter to the Supreme Court made public on Monday, the head of the investigation, Deltan Dallagnol, argued for a federal probe because some of the alleged gifts were made while Lula was still in office. The prosecutors suspect favors were extended to Lula by executives of engineering firms Odebrecht and OAS that…
Turkey Repairing Iraqi Kurdish Oil Pipeline as Violence Flares
Turkey has begun work to repair a pipeline taking crude oil from northern Iraq to the Mediterranean through its restive southeast and aims to restore flows soon, the Turkish energy ministry said on Saturday. The pipeline, which has been repeatedly sabotaged in recent months, normally carries some 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and the disputed Kirkuk oil fields to the port of Ceyhan for export. Rising security threats in Turkey's southeast mean Iraqi Kurdish exports to world markets through the pipeline could remain halted for another two weeks, Turkish shipping and industry sources said on Friday.
Petrobras Hires Bank for Braskem Stake Sale
State-controlled oil producer Petróleo Brasileiro SA hired Banco Bradesco BBI to help sell a 36.1 percent stake in petrochemical giant Braskem SA, Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported on Wednesday. The company, commonly known as Petrobras, wants to dispose of the Braskem stake to help raise cash from a targeted $15.1 billion in asset divestments by the end of the year, Folha reported, without citing sources. At current prices, the stake is worth 5.8 billion reais ($1.4 billion), Folha said, without saying whether the calculation includes any type of premium.
Brazil Bribe Investigation Widens
Brazil's top prosecutor has found evidence that a bribe scheme involving local engineering firms and the state oil company extended to pension funds and a workers' fund, benefiting the ruling Workers' Party and allies, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Friday. The paper said the potential new front in Brazil's largest-ever corruption investigation was based on a slew of text messages leaked to the local press on Thursday from Leo Pinheiro, the convicted former head of engineering firm OAS. "According to what can be inferred from the messages, there were debentures issued by the companies acquired by banks ...
Brazil Prosecutors Charge 12 in SBM Offshore Graft Scheme
Brazilian prosecutors on Thursday charged 12 people with a bribery scheme involving Dutch firm SBM Offshore NV, the world's top leaser of oil production ships, and state oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA . Police said they had four arrest orders as part of the scheme, dubbed "Operation Black Blood," though two of them involved suspects already in jail in the southern city of Curitiba, the epicenter of a broader investigation into price fixing and bribery on Petrobras contracts with engineering firms. Former Petrobras executives Pedro Barusco…
Former Mendes Junior VP Convicted in Petrobras Case
The federal judge handling the Petrobras corruption cases sentenced the former vice president of Brazilian engineering firm Mendes Junior to 19 years and four months in prison for his role in the massive kickback scheme. Judge Sergio Moro convicted Sergio Cunha Mendes of corruption, money laundering and racketeering for the payment of 31.5 million reais ($8.3 million) in bribes to obtain contracts with state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro. He ordered the former executive to return that amount to Petrobras. Seven other people, including former Mendes Junior executives…
Brazilian Panel Approves Report Clearing Petrobras of Wrongdoing
A final report approved by a Brazilian congressional panel investigating corruption at state-run oil company Petrobras has blamed suppliers and rogue employees for the graft, rather than politicians or the company. The committee's final report did not criticize any politicians, including those closely associated with Petrobras, such as President Dilma Rousseff, who was chairwoman of the company's board when much of the corruption happened. It also spared Eduardo Cunha, the speaker of the lower house who is under investigation by police and prosecutors for alleged corruption.
