Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras has closed a strategic collaboration contract with Chinese state-owned company CNOOC, and the deal will focus not only on refining and chemical engineering but also on petroleum services and low-carbon energy projects, according to media reports.
The Chinese oil company, which specializes almost exclusively in overseas projects, already has a presence in Brazil with a minority stake in the Bzios field, one of the promising new developments in Brazil’s offshore pre-salt zone.
The Búzios field, operated by Petrobras, was discovered in 2010, and production began eight years later.
CNOOC recently reported an 11% decline in its net profit for the first half of the year since, like all others in the sector, it suffered the consequences of the fall in crude oil prices.
“In the first half of 2023, the macroeconomy remained complex and volatile, while international oil prices experienced downward fluctuations,” CNOOC Chairman Wang Dongjin told “Oilprice.”
At the same time, the Chinese company recorded production growth, both at home and abroad, during the first half of 2023, with daily net production reaching an all-time high.
The company expects to reach a daily extraction record for the whole year of between 650 and 660 million barrels of oil per day.
As for the Brazilian oil company, in the first half of 2023, Petrobras’ profits fell by almost 33%. However, the company was the third company in the sector with the highest profits in the period worldwide, having a net result of 13 billion dollars, only behind Aramco and Exxon, local sources reported in early August.
