Statoil Agrees on $2.5 Billion Deal for Brazil Oil License
July 29 2016 - 3:30AM
Dow Jones News
By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland
OSLO-Norway's Statoil ASA (STO) said Friday it had acquired a
66% stake in an offshore license off Brazil from Petroleo
Brasileiro SA for $2.5 billion, including the major Carcara
discovery, in a bid to strengthen its production into the next
decade.
Statoil said the BM-S-8 offshore license included a substantial
part of the Carcara oil field in the Santos basin, one of the
world's largest discoveries in recent years. The company estimated
the license to contain recoverable volumes of 700 million to 1.3
billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Brazil's Petrobras, the most indebted oil firm in the world, has
pledged to divest more than $15 billion in assets by the end of
this year in an effort to pay down its debts, but ahead of today's
announcement it had only managed to raise about $2 billion.
The acquisition also comes at a time of rising debt for 67%
state-owned Statoil, which continues to pay dividends to
shareholders and invest in new production. Its debt ratio--debt as
a share of its capital--stood at 31.2% at the end of the first
quarter, up from 22.4% a year earlier.
Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at
kjetilmalkenes.hovland@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 29, 2016 03:15 ET (07:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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