PBR Petroleo Brasileiro ADR

By Rogerio Jelmayer and Will Connors 

SÃO PAULO -- Brazilian state-run energy company Petróleo Brasileiro SA on Friday sold a controlling stake in an offshore oil field for $2.5 billion to Norway's Statoil ASA, as Petrobras' efforts to shed assets and pay down its massive debt gain steam.

The BM-S-8 offshore license, which includes a substantial part of the Carcará oil field in the Santos basin, is part of Brazil's coveted pre-salt oil region, and represents part of one of the world's largest oil discoveries in recent years. Statoil estimated the license covers recoverable volumes of 700 million to 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Despite its allure, the field is still in the exploration phase, and for Petrobras the sale is seen as a necessary step toward its $15 billion divestment plan to help pay off the company's industry-leading $126 billion debt load.

Petrobras executives said Friday that they still aim to hit that target by year's end, by prioritizing assets with "greater potential for short-term cash generation, capital optimization and economies of scale."

Solange da Silva Guedes, Petrobras' executive director for exploration and production, said Friday that the company is "very happy" with the deal, and noted that because the field in question is still in an exploratory phase, the sale to Statoil won't have an impact on Petrobras' oil reserves or its oil production figures.

Statoil and Petrobras are also negotiating a memorandum of understanding to assess other long-term initiatives.

After a slow start to the year, Ms. Guedes and Petrobras' new chief executive Pedro Parente have recently overseen a flurry of deals.

On Thursday, Petrobras said it entered into exclusive talks with Mexican petrochemicals company Alpek to sell its petrochemical units Petroquimica Suape and Citepe, though it didn't detail the amount to be raised from the sale.

Last week the company said it would sell a controlling stake in its fuel distribution subsidiary, known as BR Distribuidora, after it failed to get sufficient bids for a minority stake. A deal is likely to take place soon, according to analysts. BR Distribuidora is Brazil's largest gas station chain, with some 7,500 outlets across the country.

In May, Petrobras sold stakes in its Argentina and Chile subsidiaries, and the company is in exclusive talks with Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc. over the sale of its natural gas pipeline unit, Nova Transportadora do Sudeste SA.

Despite this, before the Statoil deal Petrobras had only managed to offload about $2 billion in assets. On Friday Petrobras chief financial officer Ivan Monteiro said the company has "great confidence" that it can meet its $15 billion divestment target by the end of the year.

Write to Rogerio Jelmayer at rogerio.jelmayer@wsj.com and Will Connors at william.connors@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 30, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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