Brazilian state oil company Petrobras intends to make Africa its main development region outside Brazil, revealed CEO Magda Chambriard in an extensive interview with Reuters on Thursday (June 5) regarding the company’s strategy.
According to the report, Ivory Coast rolled out the red carpet for Petrobras to explore deep and ultra-deep waters off its coast by giving the company preferential rights to purchase nine offshore exploration blocks on Wednesday. The CEO also stated that Nigeria, Angola, and Namibia have expressed interest in working with us.
“We are specialists in the eastern margin of Brazil,” Chambriard said, citing geological similarities between that region and Africa.
“The correlation between Brazil and the African continent is undeniable, so we need to go [to Africa],” she added.
In recent years, Petrobras has shown growing interest in acquiring stakes in oil assets abroad, especially in Africa, as it seeks to boost reserves while facing delays in obtaining environmental licenses to drill for new oil off the Amazon rainforest coast.
“Petrobras is also looking to explore the Indian coast and plans to participate in an oil block auction scheduled for July,” Chambriard stated.
The company’s plans signal a return to the African continent after previous administrations sold off regional assets as part of a broader strategy that saw Petrobras focusing on high-yield areas in Brazil’s pre-salt fields.
The push to explore new oil fields aligns with Chambriard’s broader strategy to balance President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s ambitions of using Petrobras to drive the Brazilian economy, while also delivering returns to investors—all amidst the global challenge of lower oil prices.
However, the company’s African plans are already underway.
In 2023, Petrobras acquired a stake in an offshore oil field in South Africa, and in early 2024, it bought a stake in fields in São Tomé and Príncipe, where it expects to drill a well this year, according to the CEO.
Despite these recent efforts, Chambriard disclosed that the company lost out to France’s TotalEnergies in the bid for a stake in Galp Energia’s offshore Mopane discovery in Namibia.
“We hope to be invited to help develop Mopane,” added Magda Chambriard, without providing further details.
Source: Diário Económico
