Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala investment vehicle is investing in oil and gas in Brazil, after agreeing to take a 5% share in EBX Group, the privately owned Brazillian oil firm, for $2 billion.
EBX’s owner, Braziillian multi-billionaire Eike Batista, has been seeking cash for a major push into developing offshore re-salt assets, as the private company looks to take a slice of the prodigious pre-salt discoveries in the Santos Basin off the coast of Brazil before state firm Petrobras hoovers them up.
Created in 2007, EBX’s subsidiary EBX has a portfolio of potential resources estimated at 10.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent across 35 exploratory blocks located in some of the most promising sedimentary basins in Brazil (30 blocks) and Colombia (5 blocks). The company started its first oil production in January 2012.
Through OGX, Batista is fronting the largest private sector exploratory campaign in Brazil. The company holds a 100% working interest in the BM-S-57 block in the Santos Basin and has commissioned a $850 million floating production, storage and offloading for use at the Waimea accumulation in the Campos basin.
The deal also gives the $46 billion Mubadala fund a foothold into the diversified portfolio of businesses run under EBX’s parent company, Centennial Asset Brazilian Equity Fund, including entertainment, heavy industry and fertilizer production. Brazil is seen as a robust emerging growth market.
EBX itself holds a range of natural resources revenue streams in addition to OGX, its core oil business. Projects within EBX range from coal mining to power generation, iron ore extraction and logistics.
