NEW YORK: Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras will pay its first shareholder dividend in three years if the company turns a profit in 2017, said Chief Executive Officer Pedro Parente.
Parente took the helm of the world’s most indebted energy company a year ago and said he is ahead of schedule with an aggressive restructuring plan to cut its $95 billion debt, reduce costs and sell assets.
Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, made a record operating profit in the first quarter and if that continues throughout the year, chances are good that the firm will pay a dividend, Parente told Reuters in an interview in New York.
“We really are keen to start paying dividends as fast as we can,” he said. “If at the end of the year I have a profit, we would be more than happy to start paying dividends.”
Petrobras’ bylaws say that shareholders are entitled to dividends if the company turns a profit, pending approval from the board and considering factors such as cash requirements and investment opportunities. Company executives have in the past said Petrobras is not obliged to pay dividends on its profits.
Rising output in Brazil’s prodigious offshore fields is helping Parente turn Petrobras around from its nadir in 2014, when the firm last paid dividends.
Then, investors lost confidence as Petrobras sank into a political and financial maelstrom with the oil price fall reducing its revenues, a corruption scandal swamping the company and losses mounting due to government fuel subsidies.
Ratings firms downgraded Petrobras’ creditworthiness, landing the firm with a huge interest bill to service its debt, which then stood at around $130 billion, accumulated to finance development of massive reserves in Brazil's deep Atlantic waters.
Parente says he was hopeful about hitting his key metric to reduce leverage by the end of this year — a full year ahead of schedule.
“It is likely we will reach that target ... before 2018. I hope, but I don,t know,” he said.
He is targeting reducing Petrobras’ debt to 2.5 times its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from 5.1 times EBITDA at the end of 2015. At the end of the first quarter, the ratio stood at 3.24.
Even if he hits that target, Parente has no plans to stop reducing debt or to let up on asset sales.
"We're not going to stop our plan... This is not yet a healthy leverage level for Petrobras," he said.
A more appropriate level that would put Petrobras in line with global oil majors would be around 1.5 EBITDA, he said. He has no plans, for now, to make that a new target.
Investors have rewarded Parente for the turnaround. The firm achieved an interest rate of below 5 percent this week on a five-year bond for the first time since the crisis, Parente said. At the worst point, the rate was around 13 percent.
Parente said he would consider serving as chief executive beyond the end of next year if the government that is elected in 2018 wants him to continue in the post. A full cycle of management at the company would be four years, he said.
AUCTIONS
Petrobras has yet to decide whether it will participate in three government auctions this year for oilfields, he said. If it does, it will be go for deepwater fields, as operating there is Petrobras' strength, he added.
The company will not adjust its five-year capital expenditure plan of $75 billion through 2021 to finance the development of new fields, Parente said, adding that the firm would fund any expansion through cost reductions.
Petrobras will not bid for onshore or shallow water oilfields, he said, and is committed to selling its participation in onshore and shallow water fields as part of a $21 billion divestment plan, he said.
He declined to say how much cash he hoped to raise with field sales.
Rising Brazilian output, both from Petrobras and from international oil firms operating there, has contributed to a strong rise in output from non-OPEC producers this year that is making it hard for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to curb global supply and end a two-year glut.
Petrobras' crude exports rose to 725,000 barrels per day in the first quarter, up 72 percent on the year. The rise came in part because of higher output, but also because a recession in Brazil has hit domestic oil demand. Output stood at 2.182 million bpd, up from 1.980 million bpd from the year earlier.
Parente declined to estimate exports for the full year, but said his target was to ensure the country was a net oil exporter and could keep expensive refined fuel imports to a minimum.
Brazil had no plans to join OPEC and non-OPEC producers in curbing global supply, in part because the country's laws would not permit it, he said.
OPEC meets next week to decided whether to extend output cuts agreed in December, when it joined with top non-OPEC producers such as Russia to reduce global supply in an effort to boost oil prices.
Petrobras turnaround could yield first dividend in years in 2017
Petrobras turnaround could yield first dividend in years in 2017
Saudi Arabia sets global benchmark in AI modernization
- Executives hail the Kingdom’s robust infrastructure and strategic workforce programs
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is emerging as a global leader in artificial intelligence, according to executives from OpenText, one of the world’s largest enterprise information management companies.
With 22 years of international AI experience, Harald Adams, OpenText’s senior vice president of sales for international markets, said the Kingdom’s modernization efforts are now setting a global standard.
“From my perspective, Saudi Arabia is not only leading the modernization towards artificial intelligence in the Middle East, I think it is even not leading it only in the MENA region. I think it is leading it globally,” Adams told Arab News.
In an interview, Adams and George Schembri, vice president and general manager for the Middle East at OpenText, discussed the Kingdom’s significant investments in AI during the inauguration of OpenText’s new regional headquarters in Riyadh.
“So for us (OpenText), from our perspective, it was a strategic decision to move our MENA headquarters to Saudi Arabia because we believe that we will see here a lot of innovation coming out of the country, we can replicate not only to the MENA region, maybe even further to the global level,” Adams said.
The new headquarters, located in the King Abdullah Financial District, will serve as a central hub for OpenText customers and partners across the Middle East. Its opening reflects a broader trend of tech giants relocating to Riyadh, signaling the Kingdom’s rise as a hub for global AI innovation.
Adams attributed Saudi Arabia’s lead in AI modernization to a combination of substantial financial backing, a unified national strategy, and a remarkable pace of execution.
“I mean, a couple of things, because the ingredients in Saudi Arabia are of course, quite interesting. On the one hand side, Saudi Arabia has deep pockets and great ambitions. And they are, I mean, and they are executing fast, yeah,” he said.
“So from that perspective, at the moment, what we see is that there are, especially on the government side, I can’t see any other government organizations globally moving faster into that direction than it is happening in Saudi Arabia. Not in the region, not even on a global level, they are leading the game,” he underlined.
Schembri added, “Saudi’s AI vision is one of the most ambitious in the world, and AI on a national scale is not good without trusted, secured, and governed, and this is where OpenText helps to enable the Saudi organizations to be able to deliver on the 2030 Vision.”
“The Kingdom’s focus on AI and digital transformation creates a powerful opportunity for organizations to unlock value from their information,” Schembri stated.
“With OpenText on the ground in Riyadh, our customers gain direct access to trusted global expertise combined with local insight — enabling them to manage information securely, scale AI with confidence, and compete on a global stage,” he added.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Saudi Arabia ranks 5th globally and 1st in the region for AI growth under the 2025 Global AI Index.
• The Kingdom is also 3rd globally in advanced AI model development, trailing only the US and China.
• AI is projected to contribute $235.2 billion — or 12.4 percent — to Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2030.
The inauguration of OpenText’s new regional headquarters was attended by Canada’s Minister of International Trade and Economic Development, Maninder Sidhu, and Jean-Philippe Linteau, Canada’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Sidhu emphasized the alignment of Saudi Vision 2030 with Canada’s economic and innovation goals.
“His Highness (Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) and Vision 2030, there is a lot of alignment with Canada, as you know, with the economic collaboration, with his vision around mining, around education, tourism, healthcare, you look at AI and tech, there’s a lot of alignment here at OpenText Grand opening their regional headquarters,” Sidhu told Arab News.
Saudi Arabia’s AI ambitions are projected to contribute $235.2 billion — or 12.4 percent — to its GDP by 2030, according to PwC. The Saudi Data and AI Authority, established by a royal decree in 2019, drives the Kingdom’s national data and AI strategy.
One flagship initiative, Humain, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was launched in May 2025 under the Public Investment Fund. It aims to build a full AI stack — from data centers and cloud infrastructure to models and applications — positioning Saudi Arabia as a globally competitive AI hub. The project plans to establish a data center capacity of 1.8 GW by 2030 and 100 GW of AI compute capacity by 2026.
Saudi Arabia is also expanding international partnerships. In May 2025, Humain signed a $5 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services to accelerate AI adoption domestically and globally, focusing on infrastructure, services, and talent development.
The Kingdom ranked fifth globally and first in the Arab region for AI sector growth under the 2025 Global AI Index, and third worldwide in advanced AI model development, behind only the US and China, according to the Stanford University AI Index 2025.
Education is another pillar of Saudi AI strategy. Starting in the 2025-26 academic year, AI will be taught as a core subject across all public school grades, reaching roughly 6.7 million students. The curriculum will cover algorithmic thinking, data literacy, and AI ethics.
OpenText executives emphasized their commitment to supporting Vision 2030 and the national AI strategy through workforce development.
“OpenText has put a lot of investment in the Kingdom, right. We brought cloud to the Kingdom, we’ve opened our headquarters in the Kingdom, we’ve basically hiring Saudis in the Kingdom, We basically building, if you like, an ecosystem to support the Kingdom. And on top of that, what we’re doing is we’re putting a plan together, if you like, a program to look at how we can educate, if you like, the students at universities,” Schembri said.
“So this is something that we are looking into, we are basically investigating and to see how we can support the Saudi nationals when they come into the workplace. And I’m really excited. I have Harry who is, our leadership who’s supporting this program.”
“It’s something that we are putting together. It’ll take some effort. So it’s still in play because we want to make sure what we put it basically delivers on what we're trying to achieve based on the vision of Saudi,” he added.
“The younger generation is sooner or later either working for us or maybe for a partner or for maybe for a customer. So that’s why we are to 100 percent committed to enable all of that,” Adams said.
