Petrobras controls significant oil and energy assets in 18 countries in Africa, North America, South America, Europe and Asia. These holdings as well as properties in Brazil give it total assets of $133.5 billion (2008).
Petrobras is Latin America's largest company, thanks to 2008 sales of $118.3 billion, according to a ranking from Latin Business Chronicle over Latin America's Top 500 Companies.
The Brazilian government directly owns 54% of Petrobras' common shares with voting rights, while the Brazilian Development Bank and Brazil's Sovereign Wealth Fund (Fundo Soberano) each control 5%, bringing the State's direct and indirect ownership to 64%. The privately held shares are traded on BM&F Bovespa, where they are part of the Ibovespa index.
Petrobras began the processing oil shale in 1953, developing Petrosix technology for extracting oil from oil shale. An industrial size retort began processing shale in the 1990's. In 2006, Petrobas claimed that this industrial retort had a design capacity to process 260 tonnes/hour of oil shale.
Petrobras operated the world's largest oil platform — the Petrobras 36 Oil Platform - until an explosion on 15 March 2001 led to its sinking on 20 March 2001. In 2007, Petrobras inaugurated the Petrobras 52 Oil Platform, replacing the 36. The 52 is the biggest Brazilian oil platform and third in the world. .
Petrobras works extensively with foreign acquisitions too, buying and controlling some of the most important energy companies in South America and exploring huge deep-water fields of West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. Petrobras is known for its technology in deep-water.
2000: The company reached the world record of oil exploration in deep waters, at 1,877 meters below sea level.
2001: An accident occurred at the P-36 Platform, which was the world's biggest oil platform. The platform, owing to technical failures, sank on 20 March with about 1500 tons of oil.
2003: The company acquired Argentina's largest oil company Perez Companc Energía (PECOM Energía S.A.), and its operational bases in Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay.
2006: Petrobras achieved Brazilian self-sufficiency in oil.
2007: The company recorded its highest earnings ever, with more than US$13 billion of profit. The company announced the discovery of the giant gas field "Jupiter", in Santos. Value of the company's shares increased by about 106%, from February to December.
2008: The company discovered what could be the world's third largest oil field. The actual reserves are yet to be verified, however.
2009: Petrobras acquired Esso's distribution business in Chile.
2010: Petrobras raises US$70 billion in largest share offering ever, as it seeks to explore and produce Brazil's massive offshore oil reserves. [source: wikipedia]
Petrobras works extensively with foreign acquisitions too, buying and controlling some of the most important energy companies in South America and exploring huge deep-water fields of West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. Petrobras is known for its technology in deep-water.
2000: The company reached the world record of oil exploration in deep waters, at 1,877 meters below sea level.
2001: An accident occurred at the P-36 Platform, which was the world's biggest oil platform. The platform, owing to technical failures, sank on 20 March with about 1500 tons of oil.
2003: The company acquired Argentina's largest oil company Perez Companc Energía (PECOM Energía S.A.), and its operational bases in Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay.
2006: Petrobras achieved Brazilian self-sufficiency in oil.
2007: The company recorded its highest earnings ever, with more than US$13 billion of profit. The company announced the discovery of the giant gas field "Jupiter", in Santos. Value of the company's shares increased by about 106%, from February to December.
2008: The company discovered what could be the world's third largest oil field. The actual reserves are yet to be verified, however.
2009: Petrobras acquired Esso's distribution business in Chile.
2010: Petrobras raises US$70 billion in largest share offering ever, as it seeks to explore and produce Brazil's massive offshore oil reserves. [source: wikipedia]
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France24 news
written by AFP staff
Tuesday January 31, 2012
Brazil's state-run energy giant Petrobras on Tuesday reported that 160 barrels of crude oil may have spilled from a deep-water well off Sao Paulo state but said the situation was under control.
A company statement said a production string rupture of the FPWSO Dynamic Producer (vessel platform) was detected early Tuesday, roughly 300 kilometers (180 miles) off the coast of Sao Paulo state, where water depth reaches 2,140 meters (6,600 feet).
It said the well was automatically shut down after the rupture by the safety system and has been secured.
"A preliminary estimate indicates that 160 barrels of oil may have spilled. There is no possibility of the oil reaching the Brazilian coast," Petrobras said.
It added that an investigation was launched to determine the cause of the leak.
Petrobras said it notified the Brazilian Navy, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP).
It was the second oil spill in Brazil in less than a week.
Last Thursday, Transpetro, a Petrobras subsidiary, said it had detected a spill off the coast of Rio Grande do Sul state but did not know how much had spilled.
Petrobras's transportation unit said it was not possible to estimate how much oil had leaked but said personnel and equipment were deployed to contain and remove the spill off the coast of the southern state.
In November, another oil spill was detected in a well operated by US energy company Chevron near the Frade field, 370 kilometers (231 miles) northeast of the Rio de Janeiro coast.
The spill was eventually contained and Chevron was subject to several environmental fines.
The case was a wake-up call for Brazil as it prepares to tap huge underwater oil fields, which ANP says hold reserves that could surpass 100 billion barrels of high-quality recoverable crude.
These fields are off Brazil's southeast Atlantic coast beneath kilometers of ocean, bedrock, and hot salt-beds.
In 2010, Petrobras was the world's third biggest oil producer in terms of market value at $228 billion. By late last month it had fallen to 5th place, with its value down to $156 billion, according to the daily newspaper O Globo.
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