24th Apr 2015 10:10
LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it has taken into account the risks presented by the recent Petrobras scandal in Brazil after expanding its operations in the country via its merger earlier this month with BG Group PLC, and said it will consider buying any assets the scandal hit oil company puts up for sale, Reuters reported Thursday.
On April 8, FTSE 100-listed oil and gas companies Shell and BG Group reached an agreement on a cash and shares takeover of BG by Shell. Prior to the deal, Shell was the third largest oil and gas producer in Brazil, but is now the second largest after state-owned oil company Petrobras, according to Reuters.
Many of the Brazilian fields Shell will acquire through the BG deal are operated by Petrobras, which took a USD17 billion charge on Wednesday to account for the costs of a political kickback scandal that forced it to cut investment, and paralysed its contracts with engineering firms under investigation for bribery.
Reuters quoted Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden as saying he has "100% confidence that Petrobras will come through this probably as a stronger company", following a meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff where van Beurden laid out Shell's plans in the country.
"We have taken into account the impact that any of today's news will have on the development of existing fields as well as the Libra field going forward, and these risks have been fully factored into the commercial arrangements we have done with BG," said van Beurden.
Van Beurden added the company would consider buying any Petrobras assets put up for sale "if the opportunities come up", the news agency reported.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/23/shell-brazil-idUKL1N0XK24Z20150423
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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