Petrobras, industry group partner to address problems in Brazil chemical sector

Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras and local chemical industry association Abiquim have created a working group to study measures that contribute to the revitalization of the chemical sector. 

The results will be presented to the government to highlight the bottlenecks that are affecting the sector.

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Petrobras' average oil and gas production in the second quarter reached 2.64Mboe/d (million of barrels of oil equivalent per day), falling 0.6% year-on-year and 1.5% quarter-on-quarter. 

The company said the drop was due to higher lost output from shutdowns and maintenance, in addition to asset sales and the natural decline of mature fields. 

The sale of natural gas amounted to 50Mm3/d, down 10.7% from last year’s second quarter. Petrobras did not sell any natural gas in the first quarter.  

The Q2 production of derivatives totaled 1.8Mb/d, up 2.1% year-on-year and climbing 9.4% from the previous quarter, due to an increase in the refineries' utilization factor. In the May-July period, sales of derivatives amounted to 1.7Mb/d, up 0.3% and 1.5%, respectively. 

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Sector watchdog ANP has invited companies interested in Brazil’s open acreage oil and gas concession program to submit declarations of interest. 

The tender notice for the fourth open acreage round was published earlier this month. 

On offer are 955 exploration blocks and the Japiim area with marginal accumulations. 

ANP said bidding could take place this year if it receives the declarations of interest by August 8.

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Copel and the government of Brazil’s Paraná state are offering around 549mn shares, which could raise 4.3bn reais (US$900mn) as part of the energy company’s privatization. 

An extra lot could be triggered and bring the total value to 4.9bn reais, Copel said in a statement.

Trading of the shares on São Paulo stock exchange B3 is scheduled to begin on August 10. 

The process depends on federal audit court TCU's approval of the amount (3.7bn reais) that Copel must pay for the new concession contracts for its hydroelectric plants.

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Statkraft Brasil said it has sold a record 21TWh of renewable energy so far this year. 

Statkraft's portfolio brings together more than 100 end consumers. Between purchase and sale, this year has seen over 550 transactions.

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Brazil's mines and energy ministry (MME) authorized Mez Comercializadora de Energia Elétrica to export energy to Argentina and Uruguay. 

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ISA CTEEP said it received the installation license from Rio Grande do Sul state’s environmental authority for the transmission lines of its Minuano project.

With an investment of 681mn reais, the project involves building 115km of transmission lines and a substation.