Petrobras' agreement (PETR4) with the ANP will exchange a fine for investments and should boost the result. The state-owned company will replace liabilities of BRL 639 million with investments of BRL 1 billion that will be made by the end of 2026.

This Thursday (28/07), Petrobras announced that it closed an agreement with the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) to avoid paying fines for failing to comply with rules on the use of equipment produced in Brazil in its operations, which has the possibility of benefiting the company's results through investments.

ANP rules require that part of the equipment and services be national

In this sense, these were the rules that Petrobras broke. The state-owned company was fined for violating the rules on the use of materials produced in Brazil, opting for the use of international equipment, which should favor the company's results for the second quarter of this year. Under ANP rules, services and part of the goods acquired by oil and gas companies in Brazil must be national — the so-called “local content”.

In addition, companies must give preference to contracting Brazilian suppliers whenever their offers present conditions of price, term and quality corresponding to those of other suppliers also invited to present proposals. And these were the rules that Petrobras broke.

Thus, the state-owned company disclosed, in a statement, that to compensate for the lower than required use of local content in the concessions in which it has a 100% stake — Barreirinhas, Campos, Espírito Santo, Parecis, Potiguar, Recôncavo, Santos, Sergipe-Alagoas and Solimões, for example — will invest approximately BRL 1 billion in equipment produced in Brazil by the end of 2026.

"With this, all administrative processes related to the collection of fines arising from non-compliance with local content in these concessions will be closed, resulting in a reduction in liabilities of R$ 639 million", said Petrobras.

The decrease will be recognized in the second quarter results

In this sense, the expectation is that this decrease will already be recognized in the results of the second quarter of this year, which will be published today, the 28th, after the closing of the market. The agreement will have a significant effect on the oil company's balance sheet, with all administrative processes related to the collection of fines closed, there will be a reduction of R$ 639 million in Petrobras' liabilities.

In addition, Petrobras added that the commitments for the acquisition of goods and services made with the ANP are focused on exploration and production development operations in areas of the so-called Round Zero, whose contracts do not establish minimum percentages of local content.

The state-owned company also added that the signing of the agreement with the ANP does not change the investments foreseen in the 2022-26 Strategic Plan released at the end of last year and is in line with the strategy of generating value through the management of the company's liabilities and the improvement of its capital allocation.

The TAC provides for the conversion of fines for non-compliance with the local content clause of these 22 concessions into investment commitments in Exploration and Production with local content. Under the terms of the agreement, Petrobras undertakes to invest approximately BRL 1 billion in local content by 31/12/2026.

The state-owned company affirms its desire to comply with the agreement and guarantee that a good part of its equipment and services are national, thus avoiding major problems with the ANP and guaranteeing quality in all its operations, with benefits for local products, mainly.