The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA has agreed to sell 90 per cent of its natural gas pipeline unit to a group of investors led by Brookfield Asset Management for $5.2-billion (all figures U.S.). A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that the investor group includes British Columbia's pension fund and Chinese and Singaporean sovereign wealth funds CIC and GIC. The preliminary agreement has yet to be submitted to the companies' boards. The deal will be the largest divestment so far in the heavily indebted oil company's $15-billion asset sale plan. On May 11, Reuters reported that Brookfield had entered exclusive talks to acquire Nova Transportadora do Sudeste SA, or NTS as the Petrobras subsidiary is informally known. The exclusivity period expired on Aug. 12. The talks took longer than expected because the parties and their financial and legal advisers had to agree on terms of new contracts establishing the commercial relationship between Petrobras and NTS. The sale should give a boost to downsizing efforts at Petrobras, which hinge on divestments to cut the largest debt burden of any global oil firm, at around $130-billion.