Brazilian state-owned oil and gas group Petrobras has announced an agreement to sell its Okinawa refinery and related assets (oil storage and port facilities) in Japan to Japanese oil refiner Taiyo Oil for US$129m.
Petrobras took over a 87.5% stake in Nansei Sekiyu from ExxonMobil in 2007 and acquired the rest of the refinery in 2010. The acquisition was part of Petrobras' plans to expand its crude and product trading activities outside Brazil and to refine its rising crude oil exports. The Okinawa refinery has a capacity of 100,000 bbl/d and a storage capacity of 9.5 mbl of oil and derivatives and was commissioned in 1972. In 2011, Petrobras said that it considered selling the refinery but failed to secure a buyer. The group had to close refining operations in 2015 in a context of falling oil prices but committed to the Japanese government that it would continue to use and expand the storage and terminal facilities to supply fuel to Okinawa, before selling the facility.
Petrobras is facing a stagnating production, is suffering low oil prices and is involved in a large corruption scandal. The group's debt is nearing US$130bn and it has committed to sell US$14bn of assets in 2016.
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