Oleo 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.

Eike Batista, who was Brazil's richest man for most of the past decade, is under investigation for allegedly engaging in insider trading while he chaired his now-bankrupt oil-producing and shipbuilding firms, securities industry watchdog CVM said on Friday. In a statement sent to Reuters, Rio de Janeiro-based CVM confirmed that Batista is a respondent in six of nine probes that executives of his Grupo EBX conglomerate are facing for breaching securities rules. In two of them, regulators are examining whether Batista allegedly took advantage of his access to privileged information.

Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's bankrupt shipmaker and sister oil company are extending tests in the offshore Tubarão Azul field until March 7, according to a Wednesday securities filing. OSX Brasil SA said its OSX-1 platform would continue tests in the field operated by Oleo e Gas Participações SA, the oil producer formerly known as OGX. The failure to produce as much oil as expected at Tubarão Azul, Batista's first offshore field, led to the meltdown of his energy and mining group, resulting in Latin America's largest-ever bankruptcy protection filing.

Reuters –  A Brazilian court has suspended the deadline for shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA to present its restructuring plan under bankruptcy legislation until a new judge is appointed to the case, the company said in a statement. The 60-day deadline to file the plan was already suspended in January while another court reviewed a challenge to OSX's Nov. 11, 2013, bankruptcy protection filing. The new deadline will be set once the case is formally transferred to a new judge. Spanish construction company Acciona asked a court to prevent OSX's bankruptcy from being handled by the same judge responsible for the bankruptcy of sister oil company Oleo e Gas Participações SA. Oleo e Gas, formerly known as OGX, filed Latin America's largest ever bankruptcy on Oct. 30.

Petrobras subsidiaries Tupi BV and Guará BV, together with consortium members BG Group, Petrogal Brasil, and Repsol Sinopec Brasil SA, have given the go-ahead for ten contracts totaling US$4.5 billion for the construction of the first six topside modules (processing plant, utilities and living quarters) for eight identical (“Replicant”) FPSOs (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading units). The modules are to be constructed in Brazil for pre-salt projects (a geophysical layer) in Santos Basin blocks BM-S-9 and BM-S-11. The contracts will be signed in the next few days.

Wärtsilä has been contracted to supply integrated power solutions to six new offshore Pipe Laying Vessels (PLVs) being built for operation in Brazilian waters. The majority of these orders were booked before the second quarter of 2012. The PLVs will be operating for the Brazilian multinational corporation Petrobras for the construction of pipelines from offshore oil rigs to the mainland. The six vessels are to be built by three different companies at yards in the Netherlands, Brazil and South Korea. The Wärtsilä solutions selected for the six vessels include design, main engines, and propellers and will be delivered during the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013.

At the recent ABS Council meeting in N.Y., 40 prominent members of the shipping and offshore industries were elected as new members of the international classification society. The ABS Council also elected two new members to the society’s Technical Committee. “ABS governance is vested in a membership comprised of distinguished individuals drawn from the international shipping, shipbuilding and offshore industries, from academia, the insurance sector and other related disciplines,” said ABS Chairman and CEO Robert D. Somerville. Akimitsu Ashida, President, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. Noel L. Captain Ali M. Belhag, Chairman, GNMTC – General National Maritime Transport Co. Joseph L. Takatoshi Funada, President, Funada Kaiun Co., Ltd. Kevin M.