Petrobras says that the price policy advisor’s proposal was not discussed internally

Petrobras said this Monday (20) that it became aware of a letter from its advisor Francisco Petros with proposals on the company’s pricing policy.

In a statement, the company said the proposals are a personal initiative of Petros and were not discussed internally.

According to sources with knowledge of the matter heard by Reuters, the proposal consists of freezing fuel prices by the company for 45 days, in addition to the formation of a working group with representatives of the company, market and government, in search of a new adjustment formula. .

The state-owned company has been under attack since last Thursday (16), the day before announcing readjustments of 5.2% in the price of gasoline and 14.2% in the price of diesel. The company claims that the oil market has undergone a structural change and that it is necessary to seek convergence with international prices.

The government tried for days to suspend readjustments and, on Thursday, the issue was even discussed by the company’s board of directors at the request of the Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira. The collegiate, however reinforced that the definition of prices is attribution of the board.

The request was a last move by the government to try to avoid transfers amid the effort to approve a package of measures to reduce prices, which, according to President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), could guarantee a discount of R$ 2 per liter on gasoline and of R$ 1 per liter in diesel.

During his live last week, Bolsonaro said that a new adjustment by the oil company in the price of fuel would have “political interest to reach the federal government”.

He did not mention, during the transmission, the extraordinary meeting of the Petrobras board.

The president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), told Sheet that “goes to the dick” to “review all prices” of fuel.

During a speech at an evangelical cult in Manaus (AM) last Saturday (18), Bolsonaro said that the market value of Petrobras should drop another R$ 30 billion due to the articulation, commanded by him, for the opening of the CPI on the state-owned.

The president blamed minority partners for the company’s fall in value. Last Friday (17), the state-owned company lost R$ 27.3 billion in market value, according to the financial data platform Economática, due to the government’s reaction to the new fuel adjustment.

While publicly criticizing Petrobras’ profits, Bolsonaro sees his government benefiting from them. As the largest shareholder of the state-owned company, the government has kept about R$44 billion of the dividends distributed by the company since the beginning of 2021.