Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Investment Company has submitted a binding offer to the Petroleum Petroleum Corporation (Petrobras) in the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil.
According to Reuters, the refinery has a capacity of 330,000 barrels per day, and is the first of a group of eight units of this type that the state-controlled oil production company intends to sell to reduce debt. And it opened one of the largest fuel markets in the world to foreign investors.
It remains unclear whether other actors, such as Chinese Sinopec and India's Essar Group, have made offers.
Petrobras and Mubadala declined to comment.