Brazil’s Fluxus expanding international portfolio

Brazil’s Fluxus is further expanding its international portfolio. 

On Tuesday, the J&F oil and gas branch announced it will invest US$100mn in Bolivia by 2028. 

The announcement was made from Bolivia, where several Brazilian authorities and companies met with their local counterparts to discuss energy business opportunities. 

The amount will be used to expand production in three fields recently acquired by the company in the Tarija-Chaco basin: Tacobo, Tajibo and Yacuiba. Daily production will rise from 100,000m3 of gas to 1.1Mm3, the company says.

"With this step, Fluxus is taking advantage of the available reserves and Bolivia's strategic position to meet the demand for gas in the region, including from the J&F group's other businesses," said the company's president, Ricardo Savini. 

Fluxus is also considering investing in gas exploration in new areas of Bolivia.

"We’re also continuing to prospect for investments in Argentina, Peru and Venezuela, always with a view to consolidating ourselves as a South American oil, gas and energy platform," the executive added.

He said natural gas from the neighboring country is essential for supplying the Brazilian market, where the J&F group has plants powered by the fuel.

The Bolivian investment follows the signing of two contracts for the first purchase of Pluspetrol's operational assets in Argentina in November last year. 

The agreements involve block 1, block 2 and block center of the Centenario field in Neuquén province, and 33% of the Ramos field in Salta. 

At the time of the announcement, the two operations in Argentina had daily production of 9,325boe for Fluxus, of which 1.3Mm3/d were gas and 1,365b/d oil.

J&F is Brazil's largest corporate group, with businesses in the areas of food, pulp, energy, mining, hygiene and cosmetics, and financial services. 

In the electric power sector, the group owns Âmbar, which has installed capacity of 2.5GW. The company operates hydroelectric, solar, biomass, coal and biogas plants, as well as a number of gas pipelines.

Âmbar is the fourth largest natural gas power generator in Brazil in terms of installed capacity and owns the Cuiabá plant which is connected to Bolivia's gas basins by its own pipeline, and the Uruguaiana plant, connected to Argentina's gas reserves. In addition, the Araucária plant is connected to gas reserves in Brazil and Bolivia.

Its power trading branch, Âmbar Comercializadora de Energia, has been authorized to import electricity from Venezuela but this operation has not been confirmed yet.