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Located in Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul. This decision was informed on Tuesday (24/01). The state-owned company said it will evaluate the next moves in disinvestment, “in alignment with the current Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027.”
This plan from the state-owned company was published in November 2022, during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), and does not include investments from Petrobras in the fertilizer sectors. The current government, on the other hand, indicates that there will be a resumption of public investment, which could even be carried out through Petrobras.
Last week, Carlos Fávaro, the Minister of Agriculture, stated that this government should resume the national fertilizer policy, including the completion of halted projects. As shown by Poder360, the inactive factories could even increase national fertilizer production by about 62%.
Petrobras has 3 units that have not yet been completed and one that is halted. There was a decision to abandon the construction of two units, in Linhares (ES) and Uberaba (MG), and it has also put the other two up for sale: UFN 3 and Fafen-PR, in Araucária (PR). The attempts to divest the units have been unsuccessful.
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It is not new that Petrobras has been trying to sell UFN 3; it has been on the market since 2019. There were negotiations twice with the Russian company Acron, but they could not proceed.
The last attempt was anticipated by Teresa Cristina, the Minister of Agriculture, in early February 2022. A few days later, Russia invaded Ukraine, disrupting fertilizer supply chains due to sanctions.
Acron’s proposal envisaged investments of around R$ 118 million, below the R$ 1 billion estimated by the State Executive. These works were meant to start in January of this year, with completion expected in November 2024. The company intended to begin NPK formula blending operations in 2025.
The land where UFN 3 is located was ceded by the municipality of Três Lagoas to Petrobras. This venture has also received tax incentives from the State. In both cases, there would need to be fertilizer production at the factories.
All negotiations were halted shortly after the state government denied the request for the grant of certain tax incentives to Acron’s project.
For this reason, Petrobras assured the government of Mato Grosso do Sul and the municipality of Três Lagoas that they will require the completion of the units in the new divestment process.
The state-owned company relaunched this divestment process on May 31, 2022. At that time, Unigel – the lessee of two fertilizer factories from Petrobras – expressed interest in the asset. This process entered a binding phase in August 2022. In this stage of the process, interested parties must conduct risk assessments among the assets and submit proposals to Petrobras.
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