Brazil's state oil giant to cut investment due to COVID-19

Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras on Monday announced the decision to cut investment by 24 billion U.S. dollars due to the financial crunch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company's 2021-2025 Strategic Plan calls for investment of 40 billion to 50 billion dollars, significantly less than the 64 billion dollars proposed in its 2020-2024 Strategic Plan.

The new plan also calls for selling off more assets in the areas of oil exploration and production.

"The revision seeks to maximize the value of the exploration and production businesses, targeting world-class assets in deep and ultra-deep waters," it said.

Petrobras forecasts that so-called pre-salt deposits in deep waters off the Atlantic coast, which are beginning to be explored, will represent 71 percent of total investment in the exploration sector over the 2021-2025 period, up from 59 percent in the previous plan.

The pandemic's impact on production will be reported at the end of November, it added.