Written by Rodrigo Biga Gayer, Marta Nogueira, Fabio Teixeira
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Petrobras aims to make Africa its main development region outside Brazil, the state oil giant’s CEO told Reuters on Thursday in a wide-ranging interview about the company’s strategy.
Petrobras CEO Magda Chambriard said Ivory Coast on Wednesday gave Petrobras priority rights in purchasing nine offshore exploration blocks, extending Petrobras a “red carpet” for deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration there.
She added that Nigeria, Angola and Namibia have also expressed interest in working with the Brazilian giant.
“We are experts on Brazil’s eastern margin,” Chambriard said, citing the geological similarities between the region and Africa. “We need to go to Africa because the correlation between Brazil and Africa is clear.”
Petrobras has expressed interest in recent years in buying stakes in oil assets overseas, particularly in Africa, as it looks to expand its reserves amid delays in obtaining environmental permits to drill for new oil off the coast of the Amazon rainforest.
Petrobras also aims to participate in an oil field auction scheduled for July and explore the Indian coast, Chambriard said.
Petrobras’ plans mark a return to the African continent after the company sold assets in the region under the previous government as part of a broader plan to focus on the high-productivity region of Brazil’s former salt fields.
The plan to explore new oil fields is part of Chambriard’s strategy to carry out the important task of combating the global challenge of falling oil prices while balancing President Luiz Inácio Lula’s ambitions to use Petrobras to provide returns to investors and stimulate the economy.
Petrobras, the linchpin of Brazil’s economy, is also at the center of high-stakes tensions within Lula’s government. Lula’s government aims to use oil revenues to fuel economic growth while promoting Brazil, host of the upcoming COP30 climate change summit, as a champion in the global fight against climate change.
The company’s plans to drill for oil off the coast of the Amazon rainforest in the Foz do Amazonas region have been delayed in obtaining environmental permits.
But Chambriard told Reuters he believed the company could clear the final steps toward obtaining permits to drill in the area in late July.
Meanwhile, the company’s plans in Africa have already begun to take effect.
The company hopes to buy an interest in an offshore oil field in South Africa in 2023, an interest in the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe in early 2024, and drill a well there this year, Chambriard said.
