Gas Participacoes Sa News

A year after the epic collapse of his industrial empire, Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's financial and legal troubles appear far from over. Once worth more than $30 billion and listed as the world's eighth-richest man by Forbes Magazine, Batista says his debts now exceed his assets by $1 billion and the value of his remaining stakes in the oil, shipbuilding, mining and transportation companies he founded continues to shrink. Batista also faces criminal and regulatory investigations into suspected insider trading and fraud. On Monday, a judge ordered Batista, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, to testify on Nov. 18, the first step in a legal saga that experts say could drag on for months, if not years.

A Netherlands-based subsidiary of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's bankrupt shipbuilding and shipleasing unit OSX Brasil SA suspended payments to creditors after being granted protection by a Dutch court. According to a securities filing on Thursday, OSX sought protection for its OSX WHP 1&2 Leasing BV unit after an unnamed "alleged creditor" asked a court to order payment in a way that threatened OSX's obligations to other creditors. OSX WHP was created to finance the building of two fixed, offshore oil-production platforms for bankrupt sister oil company Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA.

Creditors of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA approved a restructuring plan for the oil company that could lead to a quick resolution of the largest bankruptcy in Latin America's history, lawyers said on Tuesday. The plan was approved by creditors holding 90 percent of the Rio de Janeiro-based company's nearly 12 billion reais ($5 billion) of unpaid obligations. If a judge approves, creditors will swap debts for about 90 percent of Oleo e Gas stock, said Ricardo Knoepfelmacher of Angra Partners, the consultancy that handled talks with creditors. The judge's approval is expected within days, he said. Creditors include Newport Beach…

Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA, the bankrupt oil company controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, received a $44 million offer for five oil exploration and production blocks in Colombia, the company said on Friday. The offer involves $30 million in cash and the assumption of $14 million in future exploration obligations in Colombia, Oleo e Gas said in a statement. It did not give the name of the investor or company making the offer. Oleo e Gas was formerly known as OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA. If approved by a bankruptcy judge, creditors and Oleo e Gas shareholders, the sale will help the Rio de Janeiro-based company pay for leases on offshore oil production ships and its share of investments in output in Brazil, the company said.

Keppel Shipyard Ltd (Keppel Shipyard) is on track to complete the modification and upgrading works on FPSO OSX-1, the first floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for OSX Brasil S.A. (OSX). Chartered to OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes S.A. (OGX), FPSO OSX-1 will be deployed in the Waimea field, in Campos Basin, offshore Brazil. This project will deliver OGX's first oil, just four years after the company was founded. Production is expected to commence in the last quarter of this year. Lady Sponsor Cristina Pinto named the vessel today in the presence of Mr Joao Ziccardi Navajas, Minister Counsellor at the Embassy of Brazil in Singapore, and Mr Reinaldo Belotti, Production Director of OGX.

Keppel Shipyard Ltd has secured two contracts worth a total of S$146 million (over $120 million) to convert a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit as well as to fabricate and integrate an external turret mooring system for an existing FPSO unit. The first contract, from Single Buoy Moorings Inc (SBM), involves the conversion of the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) M/T Concorde Spirit into a FPSO facility, to be named FPSO OSX-2. SBM had been engaged by OSX Brasil S.A. (OSX) to supply the FPSO, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2013 and will be deployed in the OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes S.A. (OGX) field in Campos Basin, offshore Brazil.

According to a Sept 14 report from The Wall Street Journal, OSX Brasil SA, the shipbuilding and ship-services company controlled by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, will decide on the location of its first shipyard by year end and plans to be producing oil platforms in 2013-2014, a company official. OSX’s main client is oil company OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA (OGXPY,OGXP3.BR), also controlled by Batista. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)