Sao Paulo/Rio De Janeiro — Brazilian state-run oil giant Petrobras sees little chance of paying extraordinary dividends this year, Chief Financial Officer Fernando Melgarejo said on Friday, citing lower revenues after a drop in global oil prices.
Melgarejo added that the firm is not considering changes to its ordinary dividend policy.
“With lower revenue we would have more difficulty making extraordinary dividend payments,” the executive told analysts on a call following the company’s second-quarter results.
“Although we would very much like to have the excess cash to make an extraordinary payment, we see a low probability this year.”
Melgarejo reaffirmed the company’s $18.5 billion capital expenditure outlook for this year, but added that some projects could be revised to take into account lower oil prices.
Petrobras on Thursday announced dividends and interest on equity to shareholders of 8.66 billion reais ($1.60 billion) as it reported a second-quarter net profit of 26.7 billion reais.
Brent oil prices averaged $67.82 per barrel in the second quarter, according to Petrobras, compared to $75.66 per barrel in the first three months of the year.
Sao Paulo-traded preferred shares of Petrobras fell more than 5% on Friday, making the oil giant one of the worst performers on benchmark stock index Bovespa, which slipped 0.2%.
($1 = 5.4217 reais)
Reporting by Fernando Cardoso and Marta Nogueira; Editing by Gabriel Araujo – Reuters
This article was originally posted at sweetcrudereports.com
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