Crisis-hit Petrobras to exit Brazil electricity sector

Brazil's national oil giant Petrobras is leaving the electricity sector and putting up all related assets for sale under a double-hit crisis of debt and corruption, sources said.

The assets include 21 thermal power plants, pipelines and regasification terminals, and after giving up these Petrobras will give priority to oil production instead of being an integrated energy company.

The state of Rio de Janeiro owns 47 percent of Petrobras' thermal plants among Brazil's nine states. And the involved pipeline network extended more than 9,000 kilometers centering on the regasification terminals in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Ceara.

The decision is part of Petrobras' plan to liquidate an asset of 57.7 billion U.S. dollars to pay its debts. In December 2015, Petrobras sold 49 percent of shares of its gas subsidiary Gaspetro to Japan's Mitsui for 500 million dollars.

Besides financial crisis, Petrobras is facing a broad investigation into a massive corruption, in which over 2 billion U.S. dollars have been embezzled from 2004 to 2014. Endi