Taiyo Oil Company, Limited has reached a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Nansei Sekiyu Kabushiki Kaisha from Petrobras International Braspetro B.V., a subsidiary of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) based in Brazil. Nansei Sekiyu, with a crude oil processing capacity of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) is located in Okinawa, Japan.

Petrobras had gone through the process of competitive bidding, and Taiyo Oil’s bid of USD129.3 million was the successful bid. The refinery’s assets include three piers and 36 storage tanks that can hold 9.5 million barrels of crude and oil products. Necessary transactions will have to be completed after governmental authorities give the green light for the transaction.

In 2007, Petrobras purchased an 87.5% stake in Nansei Seikyu for about USD50 million from a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation. Petrobras acquired the refinery’s remaining shares in 2010. However, Petrobras was forced to close Nansei Sekiyu’s refining operations last year and has been looking for a buyer since then.

Petrobras, which has a net debt of around USD103.56 billion, is divesting assets and scaling back its international operations to raise much-needed cash. Petrobras plans to divest assets worth USD15.1 billion for the 2015-2016 period. Petrobras has already divested assets in Argentina, Chile and Brazil. In July, the company sold its Carcara offshore field to Norway’s Statoil ASA for USD2.5 billion. Petrobras also has approved the sale of 90% of the shares of Nova Transportadora do Sudeste, which has a gas pipeline network, for USD5.19 billion to Brookfield, one of the world’s largest asset managers.