By an OGJ correspondent
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 24 -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) is having difficulties finding an oil company to acquire that will expand its production in the Gulf of Mexico, said the company's financial director Joao Nogueira Batista. Petrobras sources told OGJ that the company is interested in an oil company with daily production of 100,000 b/d of oil.
Since last year, Petrobras also has been scouring the US and the Gulf of Mexico to find refining capacity to add value to the heavy crude oil that the company is currently exporting, Batista said (OGJ Online, Dec. 26, 2001).
Petrobras has hired US investment bank Salomon Smith Barney and UK-based consultants Wood Mackenzie to advise it on the purchasing process. Petrobras also is looking at South America for investment opportunities. Batista added that it is difficult to say when the company will ink a deal.
Most of the heavy oil exported by Petrobras comes from Marlim giant oil field in the Campos basin off Rio de Janeiro state. The Campos basin is responsible for about 80% of Brazil's 1.5 million b/d oil output.
Petrobras reached a record domestic production level of 1.61 million b/d of oil on May 12, surpassing the previous record of 1.57 million b/d reached in December. Petrobras executives expect production to average around 1.5 million b/d during 2002, as the company will lose some production due to maintenance shutdowns on platforms. This reduction will be offset by revived production from Roncador field, which is scheduled to resume production in October, executives said. Roncador, also in the Campos basin, is where the P-36—the world's largest semisubmersible platform—sank in March 2001 as a result of an explosion. The platform was producing about 80,000 b/d of light oil.
