Petrobras

History

Petrobras was created in 1953 under the government of Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas with the slogan "The Oil is Ours" (Portuguese: "O petróleo é nosso"). It was given a legal monopoly in Brazil. In 1953, Brazil produced only 2,700 barrels of oil per day. In 1961, the company's REDUC refinery began operations near Rio de Janeiro, and in 1963, its Cenpes research center opened in Rio de Janeiro; it remains one of the world's largest centers dedicated to energy research. In 1968, the company established Petrobras Quimica S.A ("Petroquisa"), a subsidiary focused on petrochemicals and the conversion of naphtha into ethene.

Petrobras had begun processing oil shale in 1953, developing the Petrosix technology for extracting oil from oil shale. It began using an industrial-size retort to process shale in the 1990s. In 2006, Petrobras said that their industrial retort could process 260 tonnes/hour of oil shale.

In 1994, Petrobras put the Petrobras 36, the world's largest oil platform, into service. It sank after an explosion in 2001 and was a complete loss. In 1997, the government approved Law N.9.478, which broke Petrobras's monopoly and allowed competition in Brazil's oilfields, and also created the national petroleum agency, Agência Nacional do Petróleo (ANP), responsible for the regulation and supervision of the petroleum industry, and the National Council of Energy Policies, a public agency responsible for developing public energy policy. In 1999, the National Petroleum Agency signed agreements with other companies, ending the company's monopoly.

In 2000, Petrobras set a world record for oil exploration in deep waters, reaching a depth of 1,877 metres (6,158 ft) below sea level. In 2002, Petrobras acquired the Argentine company Perez Companc Energía (PECOM Energía S.A.) from the Perez Companc Family Group and its family foundation for $1.18 billion. This acquisition included assets in Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, 1.1 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, and production of 181 thousand barrels of oil equivalent (1,110,000 GJ) per day.

In 2005, Petrobras announced a joint venture with Nippon Alcohol Hanbai KK to sell Brazilian ethanol to Japan, called Brazil-Japan Ethanol. On 21 April 2006, the company started production on the P-50 oil platform in the Albacora-Leste oil field at Campos Basin, which made Brazil self-sufficient in oil production. During the administration of the Workers' Party in the 2010s, Petrobras spent an estimated $40 billion subsidizing motor fuels, causing it to become the world's most indebted oil company. By November 2015, the company had accumulated $128 billion in debt, 84% of it denominated in foreign currencies.

Operations

Business areas

The company operates in six business areas, listed in order of revenue:

Refining, transportation and marketing – refining, logistics, transportation, trading operations, oil products and crude oil exports and imports and petrochemical investments in Brazil

Exploration and production – crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGL) and natural gas exploration, development and production in Brazil

Distribution – distribution of oil products, ethanol, biodiesel and natural gas to wholesalers and through the Petrobras Distribuidora S.A. retail network in Brazil

Gas and power – transportation and trading of natural gas and LNG, and generation and trading of electric power, and the fertilizer business

International – exploration and production of oil and gas, refining, transportation and marketing, distribution and gas and power operations outside of Brazil

Biofuels – production of biodiesel and its co-products and ethanol-related activities such as equity investments, production and trading of ethanol, sugar and the excess electricity generated from sugarcane bagasse

Production and reserves

Petrobras controls significant oil and energy assets in 16 countries in Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.

However, Brazil represented 92% of Petrobras' worldwide production in 2014 and accounted for 97% of Petrobras' worldwide reserves on 31 December 2014, when the company had 8,112.8 million barrels of oil equivalent (4.9633×1010 GJ) of proved developed reserves and 4,599.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (2.8140×1010 GJ) of proved undeveloped reserves in Brazil. Of these, 62.7% were located in the offshore Campos Basin. The largest growth prospect for the company is the Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin.

In 2015, the company produced 2.284 million barrels of oil equivalent (13,970,000 GJ) per day, of which 89% was petroleum and 11% was natural gas.

International investments

Reserves held outside of Brazil accounted for 8.4% of production in 2014. The majority of these reserves are in South America; the company has assets in Bolivia and Colombia.

The company also owns exploration blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, in a joint-venture with Murphy Oil.

Refineries

Northeast Region

RNEST – Abreu e Lima Refinery – Suape (Pernambuco) – 230,000 bpd

LUBNOR – Lubrificantes e Derivados de Petróleo do Nordeste – Fortaleza (Ceará) – 8,000 bpd

Southeast Region

REGAP – Gabriel Passos Refinery – Betim (Minas Gerais) – 150,000 bpd

REPLAN – Refinery of Paulínia – Paulínia (São Paulo) – 415,000 bpd

REVAP – Henrique Lages Refinery – São José dos Campos (São Paulo) – 252,000 bpd

RPBC – Presidente Bernardes Refinery - Cubatão (São Paulo) – 178,000 bpd

RECAP – Refinery of Capuava – Mauá (São Paulo) – 53,000 bpd

REDUC – Refinery of Duque de Caxias – Duque de Caxias (Rio de Janeiro) – 239,000 bpd

COMPERJ (Renamed GASLUB) – Itaboraí (Rio de Janeiro) – UNDER CONSTRUCTION

South Region

REPAR – Presidente Getúlio Vargas Refinery – Araucária (Paraná) – 207,563 bpd

REFAP – Alberto Pasqualini Refinery – Canoas (Rio Grande do Sul) – 201,280 bpd

Production

In 1961, Petrobras geologist Walter K. Link published Link's memorandum, which implied that the company was better off exploring offshore instead of onshore. In 1963, Petrobras discovered the Recôncavo Baiano and Carmópolis oil fields.

The company's growth was halted by the 1973 oil crisis. The entire country was affected, and the "Brazilian miracle", a period when annual GDP growth exceeded 10%, ended. Petrobras nearly went bankrupt. In 1974, the company discovered an oil field in the Campos Basin. This discovery boosted its finances and helped it restructure nationwide. In 1975, the Brazilian Government temporarily allowed foreign operators into Brazil, and Petrobras signed exploration contracts with foreign companies for oilfields in Brazil.

The company was affected by the 1979 energy crisis, although not nearly as badly as in 1973.

In 1997, Petrobras reached the production milestone of 1 million barrels (160,000 m3) per day. The company also executed agreements with other Latin American governments and began operations outside Brazil.

In 2003, on its 50th anniversary, Petrobras surpassed 2 million barrels of oil equivalent (12,000,000 GJ) of daily production. On 1 May 2006, after the Bolivian gas conflict, Bolivia's president Evo Morales announced the nationalization of all gas and oil fields in the country and ordered the occupation of all fields by the Bolivian Army. On 4 May 2006, Petrobras cancelled a major future investment plan in Bolivia as a result. The Bolivian government demanded an increase in royalty payments from foreign petroleum companies to 82%, but eventually settled for a 50% royalty interest.

In 2007, Petrobras inaugurated the Petrobras 52 Oil Platform. The 52 is the biggest Brazilian oil platform and the third-biggest in the world.

In 2007 and 2008, Petrobras made several major oil discoveries including the Tupi oil field (formerly known as the Lula oil field), the Jupiter field, and the Sugar Loaf field, all in the Santos Basin, 300 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The oil fields were discovered by partnerships that include Petrobras, Royal Dutch Shell, and Galp Energia. However, estimates for the reserves of these new fields varied widely.

Corporate affairs

Ownership

The Brazilian government directly owns 54% of Petrobras' common shares with voting rights, while the Brazilian Development Bank and Brazil's Sovereign Wealth Fund (Fundo Soberano) each control 5%, bringing the State's direct and indirect ownership to 64%. The privately held shares are traded on B3, where they are part of the Ibovespa index. It is also listed in the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts and in the Madrid Stock Exchange.

Business trends

The key trends for Petrobras are (as of the financial year ending 31 December):

Social responsibility

Petrobras is a major supporter of the arts in Brazil.

Operation Car Wash and related protests in Brazil

Operation Car Wash (Portuguese: Operação Lava Jato) was a criminal investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil's Curitiba branch. Originally a money laundering investigation, it expanded to cover allegations of corruption at Petrobras, where executives allegedly accepted bribes in return for awarding contracts to construction firms at inflated prices. The aim of the investigation was to ascertain the extent of a money laundering scheme, estimated by the Regional Superintendent of the Federal Police of Paraná State in 2015 at R$6.4–42.8 billion (US$2–13 billion), largely through the embezzlement of Petrobras funds.

The authorities issued over a thousand warrants against business figures and politicians. It also led to a wave of arrests. Fernando Soares, also known as "Fernando Baiano," a businessman and lobbyist, was allegedly the connection between major Brazilian construction firms and the government formed by the Workers’ Party(PT) and Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB). Between 2014 and February 2016, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (Portuguese: Ministério Público da União) filed 37 criminal charges against 179 people, mostly politicians and businessmen. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and then President Dilma Rousseff were also implicated.

On 8 March 2016, Marcelo Odebrecht, CEO of Odebrecht and grandson of the company's founder, was sentenced to 19 years in prison after being convicted of paying more than $30 million in bribes to Petrobras executives. Eduardo Cunha, president of the Chamber of Deputies from 2015 to 2016, was convicted of taking approximately $40 million in bribes and hiding funds in secret bank accounts and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Protests broke out calling for the resignation or impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. The most widespread of these occurred on 13 March 2016 in over 300 municipalities. Police estimates gave about 3.5 million protestors throughout the country. Some of the protests were in areas previously thought of as strongholds of the Workers Party, of which Rousseff was the leader.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sued Petrobras and its auditors, PriceWaterhouseCoopers as a result of the corruption scandal. In January 2018, Petrobras agreed to pay $2.95 billion to settle a U.S. class action corruption lawsuit. Later in September 2018, Petrobras agreed to pay $853.2 million to settle with Brazilian and U.S. authorities. Petrobras settled with shareholder Vanguard Group in June 2017.

Environmental record

Petrobras's website notes several initiatives to preserve the environment. These include efforts to support both ocean and forest ecosystems. Most notably, Petrobras has sponsored population studies and conservation efforts for humpback whales in northeast Brazil. The company's efforts helped to rebuild Brazil's humpback whale populations from 2,000 in the mid-nineties to over 9,000 in 2008.

Petrobras subscribes to the United Nations Global Compact, a voluntary agreement regarding human rights, working conditions, corruption, and the environment.

In 2008, the Spanish consultancy firm Management and Excellence named Petrobras the world's most sustainable oil company.

Sponsorships and namesakes

In the Speed Racer live-action movie, one of the cars featured is the "Green Energy", a biodiesel-fueled racing car sponsored by Petrobras.

Petrobras sponsored the Brazilian Série A from 2009 to 2012.

Petrobras was a secondary sponsor for the AT&T Williams F1 Team from 1999 to 2008 (2000 to 2006 was as only fuel supplier due to Williams had a Castrol lubrication partnership and later increased role to lubricant supplier from 2007 to 2008) and signed again with Williams F1 from 2014 onwards. From 2018, Petrobras left Williams and sponsored McLaren, but cancelled their sponsorship at the end of 2019.

Petrobras sponsored the Clube de Regatas do Flamengo in Brazil from 1984 to 2009, Racing Club de Avellaneda from 2002 to 2006, Club Atlético River Plate in Argentina from 2006 to 2012 and Universidad de Chile in Chile from 2019 to 2021.

The sauropod dinosaur Petrobrasaurus is named after the company.

Petrobras sponsored the game Copa Petrobras de Marcas, an unfinished version of Stock Car Extreme by Reiza Studios, the creators of the Automobilista series.