Exxon Mobil\’s Esso Chile assets

Fri Aug 8, 2008 9:45am EDT

SAO PAULO, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Brazil\’s state oil company Petrobras

(PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (PBR.N: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz) said on Friday it signed a deal to buy Exxon MobilCorp\’s (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) stake in Esso Chile Petrolera distribution assets for $400 million.

Petrobras will take a controlling stake in the company in the second quarter of 2009, the Brazilian company said in a statement to local securities regulator CVM.

The assets include 209 filling stations, fuel distribution services at 11 airports and six fuel distribution terminals, two of which are joint ventures, the statement said.

The move is in line with Exxon\’s shift away from its distribution businesses as sky-high crude oil prices have squeezed profit margins on the sale of refined products.

In the past two years alone, Exxon has sold distribution businesses in Brazil and Venezuela, and announced that it is getting out of the retail gasoline business in the United States.

Exxon could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Reese Ewing, additional reporting by Michael Erman in New York, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Dave Zimmerman)

http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSN0837632320080808