Petrobras nets $8.8 bi in Q3; gov’t to receive $3.11 bi

In the third quarter of 2022, Petrobras posted net profits adding up to $8.8 billion—the fourth highest quarterly figure in the state-owned company’s history.

Petrobras’s board of directors approved remuneration to shareholders (dividends and interest on equity) of $0.65 per share, to be paid in two installments—on December 20, 2022, and January 19, 2023. In its capacity of controlling shareholder, the federal government is set to receive $3.11 billion.

“These results once again demonstrate the high level of performance achieved by Petrobras. With capital discipline and by investing in resilient assets with adequate return rates, the company has managed to show great performance in a sustainable manner,” said the company’s CEO Caio Mário Paes de Andrade.

The return on capital employed reached 15 percent in the third quarter of 2022—up 12.8 percent from the previous three-month span. In the period, the oil giant paid $14.21 billion in taxes and shares to the government at federal, state, and municipal level.

In the third quarter of 2022, Petrobras’s investments totaled $2.1 billion, whereas investments amounted to $7 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 14 percent from the same period in 2021.

Petrobras’s gross debt stood at $54.3 billion, which the organization described as a healthy figure for companies in the same segment and of the same size. “The reduction in gross debt was reflected in the lower number of days of operating cash flow needed to pay interest,” the statement reads. As it stands today, the organization needs 14 days to generate enough operating cash flow to pay interest.