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    PetroRio Sells Stake in Major Brazilian Gas Field

Summary

Manati is one of the biggest non-associated sources of gas production in Brazil

by: Joe Murphy

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Natural Gas & LNG News, Americas, Premium, Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Exploration & Production, News By Country, Brazil

PetroRio Sells Stake in Major Brazilian Gas Field

Brazilian independent PetroRio has sold a 10% interest in the Manati gas field in the offshore Camamu-Almada basin to another local company Gas Bridge, it said on November 5.

The deal, valued at reals 144.4mn ($26mn), is contingent on Gas Bridge also acquiring a 35% interest in the field from state-owned Petrobras, which began a binding phase for bids for its stake in August. Earlier Gas Bridge also reached a deal to buy a 45% interest in Manati from Enauta three months ago.

The transaction between PetroRio and Gas Bridge has an effective date of December 31 2020, and involves a reals 124.4mn fixed permanent payment and a reals 20mn conditional one depending on field-related regulatory approvals.

PetroRio said the move would enable the company to focus more on its core assets. Its other operations are also offshore Brazil but are mostly oil-based. Gas Bridge's business centres on gas, from marketing, storage and midstream solutions to small-scale LNG and cogeneration.

Manati is one of the biggest non-associated sources of gas production in Brazil, meeting 30% of gas demand in the country's northeast. It comprises a fixed production platform, a gas compression station, a treatment plant and a 125-km pipeline. Production began in 2009 and averaged 105 barrels/day of condensate and 1.269mn m3/day of gas last year.