Brazil’s state-owned Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), Rio de Janeiro, said the process of selling the nitrogen fertilizer plant Unidade de Fertilizantes Nitrogenados III (UFN-III) in Três Lagoas in Mato Grosso do Sul state to Russia’s Acron Group, Moscow (GM Feb. 4, p. 30), was not concluded. The company said the business plan proposed made it impossible for government approvals needed for the transaction, according to a Bloomberg reportciting a filing.
Petrobras said it is carrying out internal procedures to close the current sale process and plans to launch a new sale in June, according to Bloomberg. Terms of the sale were never reported.
Petrobras has been trying to sell the project for some time – at least since 2017 (GM Sept. 15, 2017). In 2019, it terminated talks to sell the project, as well as the nitrogen fertilizer plant Araucária Nitrogenados SA (ANSA) in Paraná state (GM Nov. 27, 2019), to Acron.
UFN-III has been under construction since 2011, and at last report was 81 percent complete. It is reported to be near main consumer markets and the Gasbol gas pipeline. The plant’s production capacity was targeted to be 3,600 mt/d of urea, 2,200 mt/d of ammonia, and 290 mt/d of carbon dioxide. The ammonia technology is KBR, while urea technology is Stamicarbon.
Petrobras leased two other idled nitrogen plants, Bahia (Fafen-BA) and Sergipe (Fafen-SE), to Brazil’s Proquigel Química SA, a unit of Unigel Group, a major petrochemical and fertilizer producer, in 2019 (GM Nov. 22, 2019).
In other Petrobras news, on April 28 the company announced that it would receive U.S. $2.2 billion from the sale of its 90 percent stake in the Albacora oil and gas field off the Brazil Coast to Brazilian oil producer PetroRio. Some $292.7 million was to be paid on April 28, with $1.66 billion to be paid at closing, and the rest of the contingent payments linked to Brent oil prices. However, the deal is contingent on Repsol Sinopec Brasil, a partner in the project, not exercising right of first refusal, as well as regulatory approvals.