Petrobras' CEO Jean Paul Prates declared on Thursday that Brazil's state-run oil company must be ready for what he referred to as the "unavoidable" energy transition, adding that Petrobras wants to be a significant part of the transition process.
As the South American nation looks to expand its offshore wind farms, Prates emphasized in a conference call with investors that Petroleo Brasileiro SA's deepwater activities situated the firm in an excellent position to take part in wind power generation.
But Petrobras isn't giving up on oil and gas.
"We will maintain our protagonism in oil and gas production while working to finance and build this new future," Prates stressed, adding that his objective was to make Petrobras a balanced company that could be a leader when it comes to the energy transition.
Prates has only held his CEO role at Petrobras for a little over a month.
Earlier today, Petrobras, like its international peers, posted Q4 earnings that were significantly higher than in prior years. Despite the high profits, the company proposed slashing its usually fat dividends due to government pressures.
Petrobras is already working with Equinor to build the Aracatu 1 and 2 offshore wind projects off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state due to deliver 4 GW of capacity. The MOU for the project was signed back in 2018.
Other companies, such as Shell, were also said to be looking Brazil's way for wind power.
Petrbras' former CEO, Jose Mauro Celho, shared Prates' view that offshore wind power was worth looking into based on the fact that offshore wind power shared similarities with ultradeep water oil exploration.
In 2021, however, Petrobras' sold its interest in the Mangue Second 1,2,3 and 4 wind farms, in line with its portfolio optimization strategy as it tried to reduce its heavy debt load and concentrate on ultradeep water oil and gas fields.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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