Petrobras’ Strategic Partnership with CNPC at Comperj Showed Through Technical Assessment That the Business is Not Financially Attractive, Workers Report Mass Layoffs in the Coming Days
After studies conducted by Petrobras and the Chinese multinational CNPC, the companies concluded that the construction of a refinery at the Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex (Comperj) is economically unfeasible. The announcement was made on Wednesday (11) by Petrobras President Roberto Castello Branco. Also see that Petrobras stirred the oil and gas market in recent days.
According to him, the oil company should not invest in a new refinery, given that Petrobras has been taking measures to reduce its presence in Brazil’s refining market, with the sale of eight of its units ongoing. Castello Branco also added that CNPC was not very interested in this business.
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Petrobras defined a negotiation model for its strategic partnership with CNPC at the complex in Rio de Janeiro in October 2018. The scope of the project included conducting studies to assess the current state of Comperj, planning the necessary investments to complete the project, and its economic evaluation.
Initially, with 80% ownership by Petrobras and 20% by CNPC, the concept was to create a joint venture that would be responsible for completing the project. In 2015, the construction of the refinery was halted when it was about 80% complete, due to the Lava-Jato operation, an investigative operation into corruption crimes involving the Petrobras project.
It is also important to emphasize that the Rota 3 gas pipeline and the Natural Gas Processing Unit (UPGN) at Comperj continue to be under construction.
Comperj Workers May Be Laid Off
Some of our contacts reported the following problem occurring at the project; we will leave just a transcription of the message they sent us to avoid misinterpretation:
“Good afternoon Paulo, there is another reduction in the civil, welding, and plumbing workforce due to delays in pipeline materials; there were welders and plumbers also due to a lack of materials for the pipeline. In the coming days, there will be mass layoffs of all these positions. The work fronts are holding safety meetings for each sector to explain the reasons for the reduction. The materials were supposed to arrive since September and are arriving slowly, hence the delay on the pipeline side.”
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