Norway’s KLP drops investment ban on Brazil’s Petrobras as governance improves

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Petrobras said on Monday it is again eligible to receive investments from Norway’s largest pension fund, KLP, which had blocked investments in the state-owned oil firm following revelations of a sprawling corruption scheme.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA , as Petrobras is formally known, said considerable improvement in its governance following the so-called Operation Car Wash corruption probe led KLP to declare Petrobras as eligible for investment.

KLP did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Operation Car Wash uncovered Brazil’s largest-ever corruption scheme in which hundreds of politicians and businesspeople were implicated in exchanging bribes for public contracts with Petrobras.

In a 2016 statement announcing its exclusion of Petrobras from its portfolios, KLP said it had 33.74 million NOK ($3.57 million) invested in Petrobras shortly before the decision was made.

(Reporting by Jake Spring and Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Leslie Adler)