Petrobras on Tuesday extended until the end of July the negotiations completion deadline for the sale of a refinery with a naphthenic base oil plant in the Brazilian state of Ceara.
Local news website Diario do Nordeste reported on Tuesday the government-owned company approved extending the deadline for concluding the sale of the Northeast Lubricants and Derivatives refinery – known as Lubnor – in Fortaleza from the end of first half of 2021 to the end of July. Lubnor has a naphthenic base oil plant with production capacity of 1,290 barrels per day.
The sale of the refinery was first announced in June 2019, Brazil’s government decided to sell off Lubnor and seven other refineries to raise money and to encourage private development of the nation’s energy sector.
In August last year, Petrobras said the COVID-19 pandemic had delayed its efforts to sell Lubnor but that the company still expected to divest the facility in 2021. On Feb. 8, Petrobras announced it had agreed to sell its Landulpho Alves Refinery in Mataripe, Brazil, to Mubadala Investment Co. for U.S. $1.7 billion. Known as RLAM, the refinery has a base oil plant with capacity to make 1,750 b/d of API Group I base stocks.
Petrobras had been in exclusive negotiations with Mubadala since late 2020. Mubadala manages a diverse portfolio of assets and investments in the United Arab Emirates for its shareholder, the government of Abu Dhabi, where the company is based.