The chief executive of Brazilian oil company Prio is "optimistic" about talks with China's oil and chemicals firm Sinochem for the potential purchase of a stake in the Peregrino oil field, he told Reuters on Wednesday.
No binding agreement has been reached so far, Prio said in a securities filing, after newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported earlier in the day that the firm was looking to close this week a deal valued at as much as $1.9 billion for Sinochem's 40% stake in the field.
"We see it as a good deal for us but there is still a lot of water to pass under this bridge," said Prio CEO Roberto Monteiro on the sidelines of the ROG.e oil and gas event in Rio de Janeiro.
There are natural synergies between Peregrino and the firm's current assets due to their proximity, said Monteiro. Buying it would raise Prio's current production of around 80,000 barrels equivalent per day by around 40,000 barrels, he said.
State-backed Sinochem has been trying, since 2017, to sell the 40% stake in Peregrino it bought from Norway's Equinor for $3.07 billion in 2010, when it beat out a raft of Chinese rivals chasing high-quality assets.
Equinor owns the other 60% stake and operates the field, its largest outside Norway, which last year reached production of 110,000 barrels of oil per day.
Peregrino is an offshore field east of Rio de Janeiro.
Reuters reported last month that Sinochem was also planning to sell its 40% stake in a U.S. shale joint venture with oil major Exxon Mobil, valued upward of $2 billion.
(Reuters - Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Kylie Madry and Chizu Nomiyama)
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