December 18, 2013 [The Wall Street Journal] - Peru plans to sell up to 49% of state-owned oil company Petroleos del Peru SA, or Petroperu, bringing in private-sector funds and floating part of the company on the stock market.
The administration hopes to make Petroperu, which has limited operations, into a more modern state-owned oil company along the lines of Mexico’s Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, and Colombia’s Ecopetrol.
“The idea is to modernize the company,” Finance Minister Luis Miquel Castilla said Monday in a broadcast interview. “Arriving at 49% of private capital isn’t an easy objective as it will mean there will have to be a restructuring of the company. It will take time.”
Mr. Castilla is a director of Petroperu.
The government has decided to focus on the assets it currently owns. Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva late Friday declared the sale of part of Petroperu and the upgrade of the Talara refinery to be a national priority.
The government says the Talara upgrade will increase crude-oil processing to 95,000 barrels a day from 65,000 barrels a day, and allow a reduction in sulfur content to 50 parts per million from the current 2,000 parts per million.
