The Brazilian government will announce "in a few days" an agreement with state oil company Petrobras to resolve a multibillion-dollar dispute and pave the way for auctioning billions of barrels of oil off the Brazilian coast, a minister said on Monday. Paulo Guedes, told journalists that his team recently sat down with officials from the Ministry of Mines and Energy and that "the deal is done".
It was reported on Monday that Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), as it is formally known, and the government had "virtually agreed" on the amount of a multibillion-dollar payment for Petrobras to resolve the dispute, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. the subject. care.
According to the source, who requested anonymity to discuss private negotiations, talks have turned to the terms of an oil auction for excess oil in the so-called "transfer of rights" area in the Santos Basin, which will follow a formal agreement .
Guedes did not elaborate on the deal, and the source declined to comment on the exact amount Petrobras would receive from the government.
However, Senator Fernando Bezerra Coelho, who leads the governing coalition in the upper house, said last week that the two sides are closing in on $9 billion.
The company can also receive almost the same amount as the auction winners to compensate for the exploratory and infrastructure work it has carried out in the basin.
The dispute over the transfer of rights dates back to a 2010 agreement between the government and Petrobras over a huge sale of shares by the company that would have diluted the government's stake.
To maintain control of the company, the government got new shares in exchange for granting Petrobras the right to extract 5 billion barrels of oil off the Brazilian coast for 74,8 billion reais, or about $43 billion at the time. .
However, a dispute over the terms of that transaction left both sides debating the additional compensation for years.
Until quite recently, the two sides were separated by tens of billions of dollars. Petrobras claimed it owed as much as $30 billion, while some officials said Petrobras owed money to the state.
Officials have since said the gap has narrowed. Now, according to the source, the gap is effectively closed, with both sides focusing on the terms of the subsequent auction.
Brazil's oil regulator (ANP) estimates that there are around 6 billion to 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil in this area, in addition to the 5 billion granted to Petrobras. The government intends to auction the rights to extract the excess oil once the long-standing dispute is resolved.
Petrobras did not immediately comment, nor did Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy. Brazil's Economy Ministry, which is also involved in talks, declined to comment.
It was reported late last year that the government expects the company to receive 30 billion reais ($7,8 billion) or more in compensation to auction winners for the work it has done, in addition to the payment it will receive from the government. However, the exact amount that Petrobras will receive from the winning bidders is still under discussion, according to the source.
The source estimated that a deal could be ready to be published by mid-April, broadly in line with public estimates from officials involved in the negotiations.
