Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), Rio de Janeiro, has terminated negotiations with Russia’s Acron Group without a deal being concluded for the sale of its 100 percent stakes in the nitrogen fertilizer plant Araucária Nitrogenados SA (ANSA) in Paraná state, and the still-to-be completed Unidade de Fertilizantes Nitrogenados III (UFN-III) nitrogen fertilizer plant at Três Lagoas in Mato Grosso do Sul state, Petrobras said in a Nov. 26 statement.
For some months now, Acron has been seen as the likely buyer of the UFN-III assets, and last year was reported to be in exclusive negotiations with Petrobras for both UFN-III and ANSA, which originally were being offered for sale as a package (GM May 11, 2018).
As recently as this past July, an August signing of a sale-and-purchase deal between the two companies for UFN-III was anticipated, according to sources cited by Brazilian financial newspaper Valor Econômico (GM July 26, p. 26).
For its part, Acron had never confirmed publicly its interest in the Petrobras fertilizer assets (GM Nov. 22, p. 1).
Just last week, a Petrobras spokesperson told Green Markets that the process for the sale of the UFN-III and ANSA assets was still underway, but declined to comment further (GM Nov. 22, p. 29).
In this week’s statement, the Brazilian oil and gas group said “it remains with its strategic position to fully exit the fertilizer business, aiming at optimizing its portfolio and improving the company’s capital allocation…”
Petrobras on Nov. 21 announced that it had leased its idled Bahia (Fafen-BA) and Sergipe (Fafen-SE) nitrogen plants to Brazil’s Proquigel Química SA for a period of ten years, with an option to renew for a further ten-year period (GM Nov. 22, p. 1).