Insurance Value of Petrobras’ Privatized Refineries Surpasses Sale Price of Assets by Up to 10 Times, Anapetro Calls for Investigation by Public Prosecutor’s Office

According to the Association, the Insurance for Refineries Privatised by Petrobras Is Much Higher Than the Price of the Asset Transactions

According to the FUP (Unified Federation of Oil Workers) and Anapetro (National Association of Minority Shareholders of Petrobras), the value of the operational risk insurance that the Brazilian oil company negotiated for three of the privatised refineries exceeded the sale price of the units by up to 10 times. According to Poder365, this information was disclosed last Monday, the 28th.

The privatised refineries in question are: The Shale Industrialization Unit in Paraná, the Landulpho Alves refinery in Bahia, and the Isaac Sabbá (Reman, in Amazonas).

The renewal value of the insurance for the Isaac Sabbá refinery, determined by Petrobras and insurers, is US$ 820.8 million, well above the sale price of the plant, which is US$ 189 million. The validity period of the insurance renewal is between November 30, 2022, and May 31, 2024.

At Six, the renewed insurance value reached US$ 418.8 million, ten times greater than the unit’s selling price when it was sold to Forbes & Manhattan Resources Inc., US$ 41.6 million.

Meanwhile, the Landulpho Alves refinery in Bahia, whose insurance coverage is US$ 9.6 billion, was sold to the Arab fund Mubadala for only US$ 1.6 billion, including the transportation infrastructure of the unit.

Anapetro Contacts the Public Prosecutor and Requests Investigation Regarding the Disparity in Insurance Values Compared to the Sale Prices of Refineries Privatised by Petrobras

In response to the disparity between the insured values and the sale prices of Petrobras refineries, the National Association of Minority Shareholders of Oil filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) of the Court of Accounts of the Union (TCU) last Friday, the 25th.

According to the president of the institution, Mário Dal Zot, this was done to instigate an inquiry to investigate the disproportionate values calculated.

According to the petition submitted to the Court of Accounts of the Union, it was found that when comparing the sale value of the Shale Industrialization Unit with the value corresponding to the assessment in the renewal of the operational risk insurance policy, there is a difference amounting to approximately 10 times the value paid for the refinery’s acquisition.

Considering that the Union is the majority shareholder of Petrobras, the enormous disparity should be investigated by the TCU, as there are strong suspicions of misappropriation and deterioration of public assets, according to information from the blog Monitor Mercantil.

The Three Refineries Are Among Hundreds of Petrobras Operations Listed as Insured

The list includes assets that were privatised in the past and whose policies were extended for another 18 months before the sale was completed to private sector members, as well as assets still under state control.

Both Anapetro and the Unified Federation of Oil Workers have always raised objections to the prices at which the Reman, Six, and Rlam refineries were put up for sale by Petrobras. The disclosure of data regarding the insurance values reignited the flames of protests from oil workers.

In the case of the Rlam, which was sold at the end of 2021, the negotiated value was about fifty percent lower than the minimum price estimated by Ineep. Additionally, the negotiated value was lower than projected by investment banks such as BTG Pactual and XP.