RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Brazil's PetroleoBrasileiro SA has canceled an agreement to sell to alocal oil firm its 20 percent stake in two offshore oil fieldsit operates with Shell, the state-led oil company said in asecurities filing on Monday.
Petrobras gave no reason for the cancellation of the sale ofthe stake in the Bijupirá and Salema fields in the Campos basinto PetroRio.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which owns 80 percent of thetwo fields, announced two weeks ago it was canceling a plannedsale of its share to PetroRio, then known as HRT, and gave noexplanation for the move.
Shell also canceled the sale to PetroRio of the FPSOFluminense, the tanker used as a floating drill, storage andoffloading platform.
Petrobras, the most indebted oil company in the world, hasembarked on a divestment program that aims to sell $14 billionin assets this year.
Shell, Europe's largest oil company which gained approvallast month to take over BG Group, had agreed in January2015 to sell its stake in the fields in a deal estimated to beworth $150 million. The period for conclusion of the transactionended this month and Shell opted not to renew negotiations.
The Bijupirá and Salema fields 150 miles (250 km) east ofRio de Janeiro were the first offshore fields to be operated bya foreign company.
The fields are in decline and need investment to pump upoutput. They produce nearly 31,000 barrels of crude oil per day,nearly half the planed production when the field started in2003, and about 474,000 cubic meters of natural gas, Brazil'soil regulator ANP said in early February.
(Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Andrew Hay)
