BG Group: Well confirms light oil offshore Brazil
BG Group PLC (UK:BG. 1,307, 0.00, 0.00%) said Thursday that a new well has confirmed light oil in the western Tupi area, offshore Brazil. The well, informally known as the Tupi W, is the eleventh on the BM-S-11 concession in the Santos Basin, roughly 275 kilometers off the cost of Rio de Janeiro State. Further testing on the well will be conducted and if those tests confirm the initial productivity data, BG Group said they will consider allocating a floating production, storage and offloading vessel to the west area of Tupi.
Petrobras needs to tap into financial markets to fund pre-salt in 2011 - analyst – Brazil
Published: Thursday, January 20, 2011 16:10 (GMT -0400)
Brazilian state-run energy major Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) will need to tap into financial markets in 2011 to raise around US$35bn to fund E&P of Brazil's prolific offshore pre-salt oil cluster, Fausto Gouveia, an economist at Legan Asset Management, told BNamericas.
"Petrobras needs extra funding for its planned investments this year. It will issue bonds and perhaps even offer shares again."
The energy giant aims to invest US$224bn over the next five years to double oil output to 3.9Mb/d by 2014, making Brazil the world's fifth largest oil producer and likely placing it among the top 10 oil exporters.
According to press reports, Petrobras launched a US$6bn bond issue on January 20. The offering includes US$2.5bn in five-year notes, US$2.5bn in 10-year notes, and US$1bn in notes maturing in 30 years.
The five-year notes were launched at 190 basis points over comparable treasuries, the 10-year notes at 195 basis points over the benchmark treasuries, and the 30-year notes at 220 basis points over treasuries, according to the reports.
BTG Pactual, Citigroup, HSBC Holdings, Itau Unibanco Holding, JP Morgan and Banco Santander are joint book runners on the deal.
In September last year, the Rio de Janeiro-based company sold some US$70bn in stocks, making the capitalization the biggest in world history.
"The risk in another share offering is to put further pressure on Petrobras' stock price. That is why I see a bond issue in a very positive way," Gouveia added.
