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Petrobras (PBR) Raises Five-Year Spending Plan to $78 Billion

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Petrobras (PBR - Free Report) recently came out with a blueprint to increase its five-year investment plan by 15% to $78 billion for augmenting spending across exploration, production and refining during the 2023-27 period.

PBR expanded planned investments between 2023 and 2027 by $10 billion compared with the 2022-2026 plan, reflecting higher drilling costs. The hike in spending comes despite a reduction in the production target for 2023 by 100,000 barrels of equivalent oil per day (boed) to 2.6 million boed.

The Brazilian state-owned oil major also sanctioned additional short-term drilling for existing projects above its long-term break-even of $35 per barrel. Exploration and production will make up 83% of the spending, with the output to increase to 3.1 million boed by 2027.

Moreover, Petrobras more than doubled its current decarbonization fund of $248 million and planned to boost spending to reduce carbon emissions to 6% of the total compared to 4% in the previous plan. However, Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s transition team might review PBR's business plan next year to reflect the new government’s priorities.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., or Petrobras S.A., is the largest integrated energy firm in Brazil and one of the largest in Latin America. PBR’s activities include the exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks, as well as refining, processing, trading and transportation.

Petrobras currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the energy space that warrant a look include Phillips 66 (PSX - Free Report) , Marathon Petroleum (MPC - Free Report) and RPC (RES - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Phillips’ 2022 earnings stands at $20.27 per share, up about 255.6% from the year-ago earnings of $5.70.

PSX beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in all the trailing four quarters, the average being around 28%.

The consensus mark for Marathon Petroleum’s 2022 earnings stands at $25.50 per share, which suggests an increase of approximately 940.8% from the year-ago earnings of $2.45.

Marathon Petroleum beat estimates for earnings in all the trailing four quarters, the average being around 60%.

The consensus estimate for RPC’s 2022 earnings is pegged at 91 cents per share, which indicates an increase of 2,933.3% from the year-ago earnings of 3 cents.

RES beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the trailing four quarters, the average being around 62%.

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