02/05 Closing Prices / revised 02/06/2025 07:34 GMT | 02/05 OPEC Basket  $77.17 +$0.27 cents | 02/05 Mexico Basket (MME)  $67.24 –$1.36 cents | 12/31 Venezuela Basket (Merey)  $61.13   +$1.55 cents  02/05 NYMEX Light Sweet Crude  $ 71.03   -$1.57 cents | 02/05 ICE Brent  $74.61 +-$1.59 cents  02/05 Gasoline RBOB NYC Harbor  $2.0507 –0.0483 cents 02/05 Heating oil NY Harbor  $2.3842 -0.0456 cents | 02/05 NYMEX Natural Gas  $3.360 +0.107 cents | 01/31 Baker Hughes Rig Count (Oil & Gas)  582 +6 | 02/06 USD/MXN Mexican Peso  $20.6325 (data live) | 02/06 EUR/USD Dollar  $1.0388 (data live) | 02/06 US/Bs. (Bolivar)  $59.46050000 (data BCV) | Source: WTRG/MSN/Bloomberg/MarketWatch/Reuters

Petrobras faces legal risks after halting asset sales -lawyers – Reuters

A logo of Brazil’s state-run Petrobras oil company is seen at their headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 16, 2019.(Sergio Moraes/Reuters)

Martha Nogueira, Reuters

RIO
EnergiesNet.com 03 03 2023

 Petrobras (PETR4.SA) could face lawsuits for breach of contract after the company halted planned asset sales at the request of Brazilian leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government, specialist lawyers said on Friday.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the state-controlled company is formally known, was asked this week to halt for 90 days divestitures worth more than $2 billion, with the government saying it was reevaluating the country’s national energy policy.

Lula appointee Petrobras Chief Executive Jean Paul Prates told reporters on Thursday “everything is halted for analysis.” Petrobras has yet to formally confirm its decision to the government.

“There is no possibility of suspending signed contracts. There is no stipulation for that,” Alexandre Calmon, lead partner of law firm Campos Mello Advogados’ energy area, told Reuters.

“That would be a breach of contract,” he said, adding if “Petrobras fails to do something that it is obligated to do, it can be held responsible.”

The lawyer also explained that sale processes already signed but not concluded are not under the control of the oil company. There are clauses in the contract that must be fulfilled by all parties involved, Calmon said.

Petrobras declined to comment further.

Giovani Loss, a partner specializing in oil and gas at law firm Mattos Filho, also flagged the “potential for lawsuits against Petrobras for intentionally canceling signed transactions.”

“Suspending the sales for political reasons leads to a discussion about breach of contract,” he added, but noted that he could not “remember a similar situation in Brazil.”

Deals yet to be completed include the sale of 22 assets to 3R Petroleum (RRRP3.SA) for $1.38 billion and the sale of the Norte Capixaba cluster to Seacrest for up to $544 million.

Brazil’s mining and energy ministry and Seacrest – as well as BW Energy (BWE.OL) and Grepar, which also have contracts to buy assets from Petrobras – did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 3R Petroleum declined to comment.

The sale halt marks a major shift from the stance taken by former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, which oversaw a number of Petrobras assets sales, including oilfields and refineries.

“To be honest, what happened didn’t surprise me because the Workers Party in its government program said that it was going to do exactly that, that it was going to cancel (the sales),” said Paulo Valois, partner at Schmidt Valois Advogados.

Reporting by Marta Nogueira; Editing by Richard Chang

reuters.com 03 03 2023

Share this news

Leave a Comment


 EnergiesNet.com

About Us

 

By Elio Ohep · Launched in 1999 under Petroleumworld.com

Information & News on Latin America’s Energy, Oil, Gas,
Renewables, Climate, Technology, Politics and Social issues

Contact : editor@petroleuworld.com


CopyRight©1999-2024, Petroleumworld.com
, EnergiesNet.com™  /
Elio Ohep – All rights reserved
 

This site is a public free site and it contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner.We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of business, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have chosen to view the included information for research, information, and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission fromPetroleumworld or the copyright owner of the materia

 

Energy - Environment

No posts found!

Point of View

EIA Total Energy Review
This Week in Petroleum