Petrobras on road to recovery

Brazil’s Petrobras ended 2016 with a quarterly profit of USD 717 million, the NOC said on Tuesday, overturning a loss of more than USD 11 billion during the same period in 2015.

Losses came out at USD 4.8 billion for the whole of 2016, a marked improvement over the USD 11.3 billion in losses registered over the preceding year.

“We had some good results in the quarter, but the job is far from done, the company’s debt is still too high […] Happily, there are very encouraging operational numbers here,” CEO Petro Parente said in comments on the results.

Petrobras’ domestic output rose by 1% to 2.243 million boepd. Combined with production abroad, fourth-quarter output was up by 2.3% to 2.937 million boepd.

The company credited the Statoil acquisition of Petrobras’ 66% operating stake in the BM-S-8 offshore licence, valued at USD 2.5 billion, and higher exports as drivers of the improved performance.

However, net quarterly revenues were down 17% year-on-year to USD 22.8 billion at March 2017 exchange rates. Measured over the full-year 2016, revenue fell by 12% to USD 91.4 billion.