RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras, reeling from a massive corruption scandal and low oil prices, announced it will cut investments by 25 percent over the next five years.
Investments from 2017 to 2021 are projected at $74.1 billion, the company said, a quarter less than in the previous five-year plan.
“In the next couple years, we will concentrate on recovering Petrobras’s financial strength,” new CEO Pedro Parente said in a statement.
“In the total five-year horizon this plan encompasses, we propose that the company will have been restructured, that it have unquestionable governance and ethical standards.”
The new business plan is the first released under Parente, who was appointed by new center-right President Michel Temer in June to take over the troubled company.
Petrobras has been at the eye of a corruption storm upending Brazilian politics.
Corrupt executives allegedly colluded with construction firms to fleece the company of billions of dollars on contracts for big projects.
Investigators say much of the dirty cash went to politicians and political parties who helped orchestrate the scheme.
The scandal contributed to the downfall of leftist president Dilma Rousseff, who was suspended in May and convicted in an impeachment trial last month on unrelated charges of fudging the government’s budget.
The scandal is also a threat to Temer, who has had several key allies implicated.
Petrobras has simultaneously been battered by the plunge in global oil prices from more than $100 a barrel in mid-2014 to around $45 today.
The new five-year plan includes an 11-percent cut to operating costs. It also targets an “intense pace” of sell-offs and joint ventures for less-lucrative oil fields, expected to bring in $19.5 billion in the next two years.
Petrobras began the sell-offs in July when it announced the $2.5-billion sale of a “pre-salt” field to Norway’s Statoil.
It was the first time Petrobras agreed to sell a pre-salt field — massive deep-water oil deposits that are the company’s crown jewels but are expensive and technically difficult to reach.
The company also said it plans to continue voluntary severance packages that will reduce its payroll by 9,200 workers this year and an estimated 9,700 next year.
The announcement comes as it faces a potential strike by workers furious over a pay freeze.
Petrobras ended 2015 with losses of $9.6 billion — its second year in the red, and worst performance since its founding in 1953.
It returned to the black in the second quarter this year, posting profits of $106 million.
But Petrobras, the largest company in Brazil, has become a symbol of the decline of Latin America’s largest economy.
After posting strong economic growth during a commodities boom in the 2000s, Brazil is now mired in its worst recession in decades.
Its economy is set to contract 3.3 percent this year, before returning to meager growth of 0.5 percent next year, the International Monetary Fund forecast in July.
Petrobras bids to regain financial strength
Petrobras bids to regain financial strength
First EU–Saudi roundtable on critical raw materials reflects shared policy commitment
RIYADH: The EU–Saudi Arabia Business and Investment Dialogue on Advancing Critical Raw Materials Value Chains, held in Riyadh as part of the Future Minerals Forum, brought together senior policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to advance strategic cooperation across critical raw materials value chains.
Organized under a Team Europe approach by the EU–GCC Cooperation on Green Transition Project, in coordination with the EU Delegation to Saudi Arabia, the European Chamber of Commerce in the Kingdom and in close cooperation with FMF, the dialogue provided a high-level platform to explore European actions under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and ResourceEU alongside the Kingdom’s aspirations for minerals, industrial, and investment priorities.
This is in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and broader regional ambitions across the GCC, MENA, and Africa.
ResourceEU is the EU’s new strategic action plan, launched in late 2025, to secure a reliable supply of critical raw materials like lithium, rare earths, and cobalt, reducing dependency on single suppliers, such as China, by boosting domestic extraction, processing, recycling, stockpiling, and strategic partnerships with resource-rich nations.
The first ever EU–Saudi roundtable on critical raw materials was opened by the bloc’s Ambassador to the Kingdom, Christophe Farnaud, together with Saudi Deputy Minister for Mining Development Turki Al-Babtain, turning policy alignment into concrete cooperation.
Farnaud underlined the central role of international cooperation in the implementation of the EU’s critical raw materials policy framework.
“As the European Union advances the implementation of its Critical Raw Materials policy, international cooperation is indispensable to building secure, diversified, and sustainable value chains. Saudi Arabia is a key partner in this effort. This dialogue reflects our shared commitment to translate policy alignment into concrete business and investment cooperation that supports the green and digital transitions,” said the ambassador.
Discussions focused on strengthening resilient, diversified, and responsible CRM supply chains that are essential to the green and digital transitions.
Participants explored concrete opportunities for EU–Saudi cooperation across the full value chain, including exploration, mining, and processing and refining, as well as recycling, downstream manufacturing, and the mobilization of private investment and sustainable finance, underpinned by high environmental, social, and governance standards.
From the Saudi side, the dialogue was framed as a key contribution to the Kingdom’s industrial transformation and long-term economic diversification agenda under Vision 2030, with a strong focus on responsible resource development and global market integration.
“Developing globally competitive mineral hubs and sustainable value chains is a central pillar of Saudi Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s industrial transformation. Our engagement with the European Union through this dialogue to strengthen upstream and downstream integration, attract high-quality investment, and advance responsible mining and processing. Enhanced cooperation with the EU, capitalizing on the demand dynamics of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, will be key to delivering long-term value for both sides,” said Al-Babtain.
Valere Moutarlier, deputy director-general for European industry decarbonization, and directorate-general for the internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs at European Commission, said the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and ResourceEU provided a clear framework to strengthen Europe’s resilience while deepening its cooperation with international partners.
“Cooperation with Saudi Arabia is essential to advancing secure, sustainable, and diversified critical raw materials value chains. Dialogues such as this play a key role in translating policy ambitions into concrete industrial and investment cooperation,” she added.
