petrobras thirty for more cash ....artemis ???

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the Brazilian state-controlled oil producer, may raise as much as $30 billion from minority investors in a planned share sale this year.

We expect to raise between $15 billion to $30 billion from the minority shareholders, Almir Barbassa, chief financial officer of the Rio de Janeiro-based oil producer, told a press conference in Rotterdam today.

Petrobras is seeking funds to finance a $174.4 billion 2009-2013 investment plan as it prepares to tap offshore fields including the largest oil discovery in the Americas in the last three decades. Under proposed changes to Brazils oil laws, the government plans to swap the right to produce 5 billion barrels of oil in offshore areas for new shares, with minority investors also having the right to boost their stakes in the company.

The stock sale may take place in the first half this year, Chief Executive Officer Jose Sergio Gabrielli told reporters at the same press conference today. It depends on the law and the law must be approved before that, Gabrielli said.

The proposed regulatory changes would make Petrobras the sole operator of all the new offshore pre-salt oil fields still to be exploited and give the company a minimum 30 percent stake in joint ventures that will be set up to bid for licenses.

Might be Low

Petrobras estimate of up to $30 billion might be low, Bill Rudman, who helps oversee about $3 billion including Petrobras shares at Blackfriars Asset Management in London, said today in an emailed response to questions. The size of the sale will depend on the independent valuation of the barrels of oil Petrobras will be buying the right to develop, he wrote.

Brazils ruling Workers Party must move fast to approve the share sale in Congress before the presidential campaign picks up in the second half of 2010, Raymond James said in a Jan. 29 research report.

The window of opportunity to approve the legislation probably extends through the end of the first semester, when the political establishment will enter into campaign mode, Raymond James said.

The laws, if passed, may make it more difficult for Brazil to develop its offshore oil reserves because Petrobras will be the operator of all new projects, Gianna Bern, president of energy investment adviser Brookshire Advisory & Research Inc., said. The country would invest in its oil industry at a faster pace if there were a larger group of operators, she said.

The geopolitics of how this all plays out is a little unsettling, Bern said in a Jan. 26 interview. Still, she said, Petrobras is sitting on some extraordinary geology and is an attractive investment.

Increasing Reserves
Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) --
Petrobras is increasing reserves and production at a time when its peers are struggling to maintain output levels, Bern said in a telephone interview from Flossmoor, Illinois.

The companys average output of oil and natural-gas equivalent in Brazil and abroad rose 4.7 percent in December from a year earlier, the company said Jan. 19.

Over the next four to eight years I see it as a very resilient share price, she said. Petrobras stock is going to be a very solid investment.

Petrobras shares rose 0.7 percent to 34.40 reais as of 4:48 p.m. in Sao Paulo trading. The stock has gained 37 percent in the past year, less than the 70 percent gain for Brazils benchmark Bovespa index.