Petrobras sells stakes to Total

PARIS: Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras is selling stakes in two big offshore oilfields and two power plants to France’s Total in a deal worth $2.2 billion, both companies announced. The agreement comes under a previously announced Petrobras asset sale aimed at raising billions of dollars for the indebted group. The transaction will see Total get pumping rights to significant parts of two deepwater, pre-salt oilfields off Brazil’s southeastern coast whose discovery in 2007 was seen as a resource bonanza. Total will pick up 22.5 per cent of the Iara field and 35 per cent of the Lapa field, which started operation on Tuesday. — AFP