Brazilian state run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) is in advanced talks to sell stakes in its refineries and other assets in Argentina to local company Oil Combustibles, for $400 million, Reuters reported yesterday, citing a source close to Petrobras.

The sale is part of the oil giant's plan to sell non-core assets worth around $14.8 billion in order to fund its massive $236 billion five-year oil exploration and expansion plan, the world's largest corporate investment program.

Petrobras, is selling its stakes in the Dr. Ricardo Eliçabe refinery in Buenos Aires and in the Refinor refinery in the province of Salta.

The Dr. Ricardo Eliçabe refinery has a capacity of 1.5 million tons per annum or 30,000 barrels a day and processes crude oil from the Neuquen basin as well as a variety of imported crude.

The refinery produces gasoline, marine fuels, raw materials for the production of solvents and petrochemical products, kerosene, diesel oil, fuel oil, asphalt base, propane, propylene and butane.

The Refinor refinery has capacity of 1.5 million tons per annum or 28,500 barrels per day and process crude oil and natural gas from the west basin and Bolivia, through two pipelines and produced LPG, gasoline, diesel and fuel oil.

Petrobras had restructured its Argentine assets, including Petrobras Argentina SA, to separate oil-related assets before the sale, and began taking bids in December 2012.

In 2010, Petrobras had sold a stake in its Santa Fe refinery, as well as a river unit and fuel marketing system comprising of 360 service stations to Oil Combustibles, a subsidiary of Grupo Indalo, for $110 million.

Local Argentinean media had earlier reported that Grupo Indalo, owned by Argentine businessman Cristobal Lopez, Argentina's state-run oil company YPF SA, Bridas Corp, Techint Group's Tecpetrol SA and Pluspetrol SA are among the potential bidders for stakes in these assets.

Petrobras, the world's 12th largest oil and gas producer, had entered Argentina in 1993 and has since been active in the exploration, production, transport, industrialisation, and commercialisation of petroleum.

Petrobras, which operates in 28 countries across five continents, has over 100 production platforms, 16 refineries, 30,000 km of pipelines and more than 6,000 service stations.

Its has proven reserves of around 14 billion barrels of oil, a figure expected to double in the next few years with the discovery of oil and gas in the prolific pre-salt region.

The Sao Paulo-based company owns stakes in 16 refineries that process about 2 million barrels of oil a day, or 85 per cent of current output. Comparatively, its two largest competitors, Exxon Mobil and Shell process around 5.6 million barrels and 3.8 million barrels of crude a day respectively.

Its massive $236 billion five-year oil exploration and investment plan may allow it to overtake the output of all OPEC members except Saudi Arabia.