HRT article
FERNANDA NUNES, AND MONICA CIARELLI Irany TEREZA - State Agency
RIO - To give continuity to the projects of exploration and production of oil and natural gas in Brazil and Namibia, the oil company HRT rely on partnerships with national and international oil companies. The intention is to find investment partners to reduce business risks. In the African country, the company intends to close the sale of a portion of a block later this month, before the announcement of the result exploratory area.
In Brazil, the company has qualified to compete in new exploration areas in 11. Bid Round, which will be promoted in May by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP). But HRT is not willing to commit the cash portion, currently $ 1 billion in this venture. The idea, says Marcio Rocha Mello, president of the company, is to seek alliance with other investing companies. HRT would come only with the "know-how".
"I spent years doing to us and to my companies, geological surveys watersheds in the Northeast and the equatorial margin of the country that I know like the back of my hand. Course there are oil companies interested in partnering with HRT only by their technical knowledge, "Mello claims.
The strategy of not spending money on the acquisition of new areas will only be reviewed if HRT encounter a "spectacular opportunity," said the executive. Then he admitted that areas offered this time are the new frontier, which implies more risk than those located in more mature basins, such as the Campos and Santos.
Shares of HRT, which arrived in March 2011 to be priced at £ 43.00, now worth a tenth of that. In closing this Friday, the share price was £ 4.39. In the last 12 months, the devaluation was almost 63%. Mello said that all available cash will be directed to the company's ongoing projects in the Amazon and Namibia. He said that resources are sufficient to cope with planned investments by the end of 2014. "IF WE DO NOT FIND ANYTHING IN NAMIBIA AND NOT GENERATE CASH WILL BE A GREAT CHANCE, ALMOST AN IMPOSSIBILITY," he said.
Currently, the company is Portugal's Galp as a partner in Namibia. The oil company acquired at the end of last year 14% interest in three exploration licenses of HRT, the Walvis and Orange basins. Besides this and the second sale of assets, expected to be completed by the end of this month, HRT negotiates other companies, with the premise that remain as operator and owner of at least 51% of the control areas. Currently, the company's total holding in the blocks is around 85%. "HRT is at its best. We are about to produce oil in the Solimões and Namibia," said Mello, disputing rumors that shareholders are unhappy with the way the company has been led by him.