Petronas to buy OGX's Brazilian offshore field stake for $850 mn

Malaysian state oil company Petroliam Nasional Berhad, known as Petronas, today agreed to pay $850 million for stakes in two Brazilian offshore oil fields from billionaire Eike Batista controlled OGX Petroleo e Gas SA (OGX).

Under the deal, which would be Petronas' first acquisition in Brazil, the Malaysian oil giant will acquire 40 per cent of OGX's interest respectively in Blocks BM-C-39 and BM-C-40 located 95km offshore Rio de Janeiro state.

Petronas also has an option of buying 5 per cent stake in OGX for 6.3 reais a share or around $160 million. OGX is Brazil's second-biggest oil company by market value after state-owned Petrobras.

OGX, part of Batista's EBX Group, is the largest private sector company in the oil industry in Brazil, with 33 exploratory blocks located in some of the most promising sedimentary basins in Brazil (28 blocks) and Colombia (5 blocks).

More than 90 per cent of its portfolio is located in shallow water or on land, and its portfolio of potential resources is estimated to be 10.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Kuala Lumpur-based Petronas is an integrated oil and gas company with businesses in upstream oil and gas exploration and production, downstream oil refining, natural gas processing and liquefaction, transmission, LNG shipping and oil and gas distribution.

It recently acquired Canada's Progress Energy Resources Corp for $4.7 billion and purchased the remaining shares of LNG shipping major MISC Berhad for $2.8 billion.