After spending $2.4 billion to buy stakes in three Brazilian blocks from SK Energy in 2011, Maersk said Tuesday it is leaving Brazil.
“Maersk Oil has revised its strategy and will no longer pursue growth or operatorship for its business in Brazil,” the company said.
“As a consequence of this, Maersk Oil has divested its ownership share in the small producing field Polvo to the operator, Brazilian independent HRT O&G Exploracao e Producao de Petroleo Ltda., subject to regulatory approvals.”
The remaining fields — Wahoo and Itaipu — are likely to have “a lower value than originally anticipated as the appraisal drillings performed have come out at the low end of the original expectations,” the company said.
It said “additional adverse impacts from increased development costs and lower oil price also must be expected.”
Denmark-based Maersk Oil is owned by the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group.
Maersk said it decided to write off $1.7 billion from the book value of its Brazilian assets, bringing the value down to just $600 million.
It said its overall group performance for 2014 will show a profit of about $4 billion for the year, well ahead of the prior year.
“Maersk Oil’s revised assessment of its Brazilian assets will have no impact on Maersk Oil’s long term production plans since no volumes concerning the Brazilian assets have been included in these plans,” the company said.
