The top oil and gas firm in China, PetroChina, said in a statement that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Petroleo Brasileiro SA's (Petrobas) assets in Peru. Petrochina would be coughing up USD2.6 billion to acquire the said assets.
Its statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange said Petrobas would be turning over three blocks of its oil and gas fields. Petrobas said it owns 100% of the first two blocks and has a 48% interest in the third.
Hong Kong-based Nomura Holdings Inc analyst Gordon Kwan said in a phone interview today, "This will help PetroChina diversify its assets internationally. This will help them learn operating lessons from their partners that they can apply elsewhere."
when Bloomberg asks PetroChina further details about the reserves in the three blocks, PetroChina spokesman Mao Zefeng chose not to elaborate.However, Mao said his company is familiar with the assets and that they bring good value to the company.
Lot 57, Lot 58 and Lot X in the Amazon jungle in Peru were said to have an oil reserves volume of 12.1 billion barrels of oil.
CLSA Ltd head of oil and gas research Simon Powell, who had said about the oil reserves' volume, also said, "On paper this doesn't look like it was an expensive deal for PetroChina. But this is going to require significant investment in building infrastructure to get it out."
The third block, of which Petrobas owned 46%, co-owned it with Repsol SA. Last year, the company revealed that the Kinteroni gas field located in the said block has a reserve capacity of least 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Lot 58, said Petrobas on its website, has 56.6 trillion cubic meters of contingent natural gas resources.
Petrobas had been selling some of its assets to acquire funding for its deep water projects in Brazil.
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