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Petros, the 66 billion real ($24 billion)
employee-pension fund of Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is
formally known, was singled out by an internal investigation,
Petrobras said in a statement.
The law firms that are conducting the internal investigation
"have found possible links to the facts that have been
investigated" regarding the pension fund, according to the
statement.
It did not give details of any possible links.
The investigation was launched after Brazilian prosecutors
alleged that Petrobras executives conspired with construction
companies to inflate the cost of contracts and then kick back
proceeds to executives, politicians and political parties as
bribes and campaign contributions.
In a separate statement, Petrobras said it was blocking payments
to 23 companies implicated in a police investigation into the
alleged kickback scheme.
The list includes Brazil's largest construction firms Odebrecht
SA, Camargo Correa and Andrade Gutierrez, as well as Italo-Argentine
conglomerate Techint and Sweden's Skanska AB.
The other companies on the list were: Alusa, Carioca Engenharia,
Construcap, Egesa, Engevix, Fidens, Galvão Engenharia, GDK, IESA,
Jaraguá Equipamentos, Mendes Junior, MPE, OAS, Odebrecht, Promon,
Queiroz Galvão, Setal, Tomé Engenharia, and UTC.
The blacklisted companies are banned from bidding and receiving
contracts for Petrobras work, the company said.
The move will reduce the number of companies Petrobras is able
to work with in its $221 billion five-year investment plan - one
of the largest in the global oil industry - as it looks to
exploit giant oil reserves off the coast of Brazil.
Petrobras said it aims to revise its planned investments for
next year as it tries to avoid a cash squeeze in the midst of
the corruption scandal and lower crude oil prices.
(Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Jeb Blount and Ken
Wills)
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