Petrobras income down 25.8% in third quarter, oil prices

Brazil’s state controlled oil company Petrobras reported 7.3 billion reais (around $4.2 billion) in net income in the third quarter of 2009, down 25.8 percent relative to the same period in 2008.

In a statement, Petrobras said sales were down 20 percent to 47.9 billion reais (some $27.8 billion) and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, fell 8 percent to 14 billion reais (some $8.1 billion), but the results were slightly better than many analysts had forecast.

“The drop in oil prices and the losses on overseas assets due to the devaluation of the dollar relative to the real” were some of the reasons given by Petrobras for the lower third-quarter results.

Petrobras’ net income for the first nine months of the year totaled 20.9 billion reais (some $12.1 billion), down 22.2 percent compared with the January-September 2008 period.

The company’s accumulated investment for the year came in at 50.7 billion reais (some $29.4 billion), with 46 percent of the total earmarked for the exploration and production segment.

Petrobras’ ratio of net debt to net capitalization stood at 28 percent, according to the company’s figures.

Petrobras, whose current daily output exceeds 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent and is one of the world’s fastest growing energy companies, currently operates in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Nigeria, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, the United States, Ecuador and Angola.

Under a proposed oil-regulation overhaul, it would become the sole operator in the recently discovered “pre-salt” frontier, a vast offshore area that could hold 80 billion barrels of oil equivalent and transform the country into a leading crude exporter.

The pre-salt deposits are so-named because they are located deep below the ocean floor under a shifting layer of salt.

Shares of Petrobras, an integrated energy company and a global leader in deepwater oil exploration and production, trade on the Sao Paulo, New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires stock exchanges, but Brazil’s government retains control through a golden share.

Tags:  Brazil, oil companies, oil prices, Petrobras