Petrobras, which submitted an offer in the sale process of a 40% stake in Galp Energia’s oil exploration project in Namibia, intends to include at least one more company in the deal, Reuters reported on Friday.
The Brazilian oil company has made a non-binding offer for a stake in Galp’s Mopane offshore oil block that would make it the operator of the project, Sylvia dos Anjos, Petrobras’ head of exploration and production, said last week.
At the time, in an interview with Reuters, the person in charge did not specify the size of the stake that Petrobras intends to acquire.
Now, anonymous sources cited by the news agency say that the oil company will not move forward alone to purchase the stake.
“This is a competitive process in a highly sought-after area, with potential to be confirmed. What is natural in a proposal like this is to dilute the risk with partners,” said one of the sources.
The source did not specify whether the company will form one or more partnerships or whether these have already been established.
Galp intends to sell part of the 80% of the oil project it owns in Namibia, where vast oil reserves have been discovered, which could reach 10 billion barrels.
The sale process attracted the interest of several major oil companies worldwide, such as the US company Exxon Mobil, the British company Shell, the French company Total Energies and the Norwegian company Equinor, among others.
In a conference call with analysts after the presentation of the first half results, on July 22, Galp CEO Filipe Silva said that “preliminary discussions” were taking place and that he did not want to “rush any transaction”.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
