Petrobras Cuts Investment Budget Amid Brazil's Corruption Scandal
State-controlled oil producer Petrobras announced that the company would be cutting its investment budget after Brazil's corruption scandal. The oil giant slashed a total of $32 billion on Tuesday.
In order to sustain more cash and to have the financial capability to pay off its debts, Petrobras cuts its 2015-2019 investment budget from $130.3 billion to $98.4 billion, showing a 24.6 percent reduction.
Financial Times reports that this big adjustment is in light of the recent events in Brazil, including the biggest corruption scandal involving the oil company. Since then, Petrobras has been under debt with a liability of $104 billion.
The aggressive depreciation of the Brazilian real against the U.S. dollar has also contributed to the decision of the oil company to cut its spending.
"Petrobras has been working continuously to fine-tune its business plan and adapt it rapidly to the changes in the business environment," the company said on Tuesday in a press release.
As Petrobras decides its capital spending, the company will also reduce its oil output. From 2.185 million barrels a day, Petrobras will now only produce 2.145 million barrels a day starting this year.
Furthermore, EFE via Latino FOX News reports that Petrobras anticipates their expected average production in 2020 to be 2.7 million barrels per day rather than 2.8 million barrels per day.
This year, the company's production target will also decrease and be cut by 1.8 percent. The budget decrease is reportedly necessary to face the effects of foreign exchange rates. According to the news agency, this will be cutting Petrobras' projected investment by $21.2 billion over the next three years.
However, the company is not entirely going down. Financial Times noted that June of last year, it reportedly issued a $2.5 billion, 100-year bond and secured funding from Chinese financial institutions.
In other news, Jorge Zelada, the former head of Petrobras' international division, was sentenced by a Rio de Janeiro judge to four years in prison for fraud charges, per Reuters.
Zelada helped Odebrecht SA win a contract in 2010 by scrapping a competitive bidding process for an analysis of the company's overseas environmental liabilities.
The ex Petrobras executive was also accused of corruption and money laundering in the southern city of Curitiba.
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