25/11/28
Petrobras cuts spending in updated 5-year plan
Sao Paulo, 28 November (Argus) — Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras cut its
spending plans by $7bn to $91bn in its 2026-2030 business plan, it said on
Thursday. Petrobras outlined $109bn in overall capital spending in the current
plan, down from $111bn in the previous five-year plan . The firm envisages
$69.2bn in upstream spending over the next five years, of which around 62pc —
about $42.6bn — is earmarked for pre-salt assets and $7.1bn for exploration. The
figures represent an overall decrease from the $77.3bn in the previous plan.
Pre-salt assets increased its share in the spending from 60pc, but their
investments decreased from $46bn in the 2025-29 plan. Petrobras set $18bn to its
evaluation portfolio. Of the total, $9bn will go for upstream activities, $5bn
for refining and other activities, and $5bn for natural gas and low-carbon
initiatives. The upstream figure is nine times higher than the envisioned amount
in the previous plan, while refining figures increased slightly from $4bn. But
gas and low-carbon initiatives decreased from $8bn from the previous plan.
Exploration spending of $7.1bn is split between offshore fields in Brazil's
south and southeast, the equatorial margin and foreign assets such as Colombia,
Sao Tome and Principe, and South Africa. Petrobras received the environmental
license to drill a well in the environmentally-sensitive equatorial margin in
October . The company expects eight new projects to come on line by 2030, with
seven new floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) platforms — most of
them in the pre-salt — and the Raia project , which Petrobras does not operate.
The firm also expects 16 complimentary projects in the pre-salt, 15 in the
post-salt and eight in onshore regions. The new FPSOs include the P-79 , P-80 ,
P-82 , P-83 units in the Buzios field, P-84 in the Atapu field and P-85 in the
Sepia 2 field. All units have capacity of 225,000 b/d and all fields are in the
pre-salt Santos basin. Petrobras included the deepwater oil and natural gas
project Sergipe Aguas-Profundas in the plan, expecting its partial conclusion by
2030. Mines and energy minister Alexandre Silveira said this week that the
executive veto on the new crude royalties formula was "a way to push Petrobras
to maintain its investments from its previous plan," including the Seap and the
Campos field revamp project. The firm expects oil and natural gas production to
hit 3.3mn b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) by 2030, with peak production at 3.4mn
boe/d in 2028-29. The figures represent an overall increase from 3mn boe/d in
the previous plan and an increase from 3.2mn boe/d for the 2028-29 timeframe.
Petrobras' plan considered Brent crude prices at an average of $63/bl for 2026
and $70/bl for 2027-2030. It also considered average US dollar-Brazilian real
exchange rate of R5.80/$1 in 2026-2030, it said. Refining, fertilizers Combined
spending on refining, transportation, sales, petrochemicals and fertilizers is
set to fall by over 19pc from the previous five-year cycle to $15.8bn, despite a
forecast increase in diesel production. The company aims to prioritize 10ppm
diesel over 500ppm. It will produce the fuel mainly in 21mn m³/d Boaventura
Energy Complex, in southeastern Rio de Janeiro state, and in its recently
upgraded 230,000 b/d Abreu e Lima plant in northeastern Pernambuco state, it
said. Petrobras plans to focus investments on expanding and upgrading refineries
with low-carbon fuels production, it said. The company aims to increase its
installed processing capacity to 2.1mn b/d by 2030, up from 1.8mn b/d today,
without acquiring or building new refining assets, it said. The firm also plans
to increase logistics in the center-west and north, it said. Those plans include
spending $2bn to build 20 cabotage vessels, 18 barges and charter other 40
supporting vessels for oil and gas production. The nitrogen fertilizers plant
UFN-III in Tres Lagoas, in central-western Mato Grosso do Sul state, is the main
investment in the sector, it said. Spending on the fertilizer sector is stable
from the previous five-year plan. Energy transition in the corner Energy
transition investments decreased by nearly 20pc from the previous plan to $13bn.
While investments in bioproducts — including ethanol, biodiesel and biomethane —
rose by over 11pc to $4.8bn, planned spending for decarbonization operations
fell by 19pc to $4.3bn. Investments in low-carbon energies almost halved to
$3.1bn. But spending on research and development initiatives grew by 20pc to
$1.2bn. The plan earmarks $4bn in spending on natural gas and low-carbon energy
projects, up by 54pc from the previous plan. Petrobras will prioritize ethanol,
biodiesel, biomethane production through partnerships and shared assets, in
tandem with its own projects for renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel and
biobunker prompted by regulatory advances, it said. By Maria Frazatto and João
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