Equinor Sells Majority Stake in Brazil Field for $3.5B

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Equinor Sells Majority Stake in Brazil Field for $3.5B

Equinor ASA announced Friday a deal to divest its 60 percent operating stake in the producing Peregrino field offshore Brazil to Prio SA for $3.5 billion. Having acquired Sinochem Holdings Corp. Ltd.’s 40 percent ownership last year, Prio would become the sole owner. Closing is subject to regulatory approvals. No expected date of completion has […]

Equinor ASA announced Friday a deal to divest its 60 percent operating stake in the producing Peregrino field offshore Brazil to Prio SA for $3.5 billion.

Having acquired Sinochem Holdings Corp. Ltd.’s 40 percent ownership last year, Prio would become the sole owner. Closing is subject to regulatory approvals. No expected date of completion has been given. The agreement was signed between subsidiaries Equinor Brasil Energia Ltda. and Prio Tigris Ltda.

Put onstream 2011, Peregrino’s productive life has been extended to 2040 with the startup of phase 2 in 2022. The heavy oil field produces about 110,000 barrels a day. Peregrino produced 250 million barrels from start-up to 2024, according to information on Equinor’s website.

Located in the Campos Basin, east of Rio de Janeiro, the field has a floating production storage and offloading platform.

“Brazil will continue to be a core country for Equinor, as we focus on starting up the Bacalhau field and continue progressing the Raia gas project”, Philippe Mathieu, Equinor executive vice president for exploration and production international, said in an online statement. “With these two operated projects and our partnership in Roncador [producing field] our equity production in Brazil will be close to 200,000 barrels per day by 2030.

“This deal is part of Equinor’s ongoing effort to high-grade its international portfolio through asset divestments and acquisitions. We continue to see growth potential and opportunities to extend the longevity of our international oil and gas portfolio, also in Brazil”.

The Norwegian majority state-owned energy major said, “PRIO, Brazil’s largest independent oil and gas company, will pay a consideration of USD 3.35 billion and a maximum of USD 150 million in interest to Equinor for the transaction”.

The transaction will be executed in two stages. Prio will initially purchase 40 percent along with the operatorship for $2.23 billion “with an additional payment of USD 166 million which is contingent on the completion of the second part of 20 percent”, Equinor said. The latter acquisition of 20 percent is priced $951 million. “The final component is USD 150 million of maximum interest”, Equinor added.

On Wednesday Equinor reported $2.63 billion in net profit for the first quarter, down 2 percent year-on-year as production and oil prices slipped. Net income adjusted for extraordinary items was $1.79 billion, down 37 percent. Adjusted earnings per share came at $0.66, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.83.

Equinor kept its ordinary dividend per share at $0.37. It has completed the first tranche of a $5-billion planned share buyback program for 2025, redeeming $1.2 billion worth of shares. It will propose a second tranche of up to $1.265 billion, which would expire July, at its yearly meeting.

Net operating profit landed at $8.87 billion, up 16 percent from the same three-month period last year. Adjusted operating income was $8.65 billion, up 15 percent.

Cash flow from operations after tax payments stood at $7.39 billion, while net cash flow before capital distribution was $4.55 billion.

Equity liquids and gas production averaged 2.12 million barrels a day, down 2 percent.

Equinor ended the first quarter with $47.46 billion in current assets including $7.37 billion in cash and cash equivalents. It had $34.72 billion in current liabilities including $5.78 billion in finance debt.

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