Brazil's Petrobras to Begin Sales Process for NTS Pipeline Stake: Executive

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) — Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA will begin the process this month to sell its 10% stake in gas pipeline firm Nova Transportadora do Sudeste SA (NTS), according to Anelise Lara, the oil company’s director of gas and refining. 

Last year, NTS’ chief executive said that partners in the pipeline firm were interested in buying Petrobras’ remaining stake. In 2016, a group led by Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc purchased 90% of NTS from Petrobras for $5.2 billion.

The sale followed an agreement reached last year between Petrobras and anti-trust regulator Cade to sell off a series of natural gas assets.

Petrobras said at the time that it had pledged to sell stakes in pipeline networks including the 10% stake in NTS, 10% in Transportadora Associada de Gas (TAG) and 51% in Transportadora Brasileira Gasoduto Bolivia-Brasil (TBG).

It also decided to sell its indirect ownership in distribution companies, possibly by selling its 51% ownership in subsidiary Gaspetro or the stakes themselves.

The moves came as Brazil's government seeks to break up the company's dominance of the sector in a plan that Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has said will deliver "a shock of cheap energy" to the country.

"The objective of the agreement is to preserve and protect competitive conditions, in light of the opening of the Brazilian natural gas market, to incentivize the entry of new market actors, as well as suspend Cade's administrative procedures investigating Petrobras' actions in the sector," the company said in its filing last July.

 

— P&GJ staff contributed to this report

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