Petrobras to Sell Brazil-Bolivia Gas Pipe
Brazilian national oil company Petrobras has launched the sale process for its 51% interest in the Brazil-Bolivia gas pipeline known as Transportadora Brasileira Gasoduto Bolivia-Brasil (TBG), the company reported on December 23.
Petrobras has launched the teaser stage for the divestment, in which it provides key information about the asset and the criteria potential investors must satisfy. TBG runs for 2,593 km from Corumba near Brazil's border with Bolivia through five states and past 135 cities, terminating near the coast of the Rio Grande do Sul region. It supplies seven distributors, 2mn residential, over 19,500 commercial and more than 1,900 industrial customers, as well as three refineries and four thermal power plants.
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The pipeline has a transport capacity of 30mn m3/day of gas but only shipped 23.6mn m3/day last year. Pre-tax earnings (Ebitda) were reais 1.33bn and net income reais 745mn; its dividend payout was reais 968mn and its net debt reais 563mn. TBG's other shareholders are France's Total, EIG Global Energy Partners and Bolivia's state-owned YPFB.
In addition to TBG, Petrobras is also selling its 25% stake in the Transportadora Sulbrasileira de Gas (TSB) pipeline in the Rio Grande do Sul state. TSB is due to be extended to connect with the Argentine gas market.
Applications to take part in the non-binding stage of the sale process will be accepted until February 12 2021. Petrobras is on a major divestment programme, seeking buyers for various upstream, midstream and downstream assets to reduce its leverage and raise capital for investing in its deepwater offshore fields.