Petrobras cuts investment, production targets

Brazil's crisis-plagued state oil giant Petrobras slashed its planned investments and production targets Tuesday, as plunging crude prices and a strong dollar continued wreaking havoc on its books.

Petrobras, which is at the center of a massive corruption scandal, has cut its planned investments for the period 2015 to 2019 by 24.5 percent, to $98.4 billion, it said in a statement.

It also lowered its production target for this year by 1.8 percent, to 2.1 million barrels a day.

Petrobras is reeling from oil prices that have collapsed to lows not seen in more than a decade, together with a plunging currency, the real, and damaging revelations of a long-running kickbacks scheme in which the company overpaid billions of dollars on construction contracts.

Ratings agency Moody's downgraded Petrobras last month for the third time in a year, slapping it with junk status and warning another downgrade could be on the horizon.