There is still no decision on fuel prices, says Petrobras

Petrobras said on Monday (6) that there is still no decision taken on cuts in fuel prices. The statement was made in a statement to the market to respond to statements by President Jair Bolsonaro (no party), who announced a reduction for this week.

“Petrobras does not anticipate readjustment decisions and reinforces that there is no decision taken by its Executive Group for Market and Prices (GEMP) that has not yet been announced to the market,” stated the company, in a text sent to the CVM (Securities Commission). Furniture).

Bolsonaro said in an interview with Poder360 website that Petrobras will announce a series of reductions in fuel prices, starting this week. He did not say, however, what the reduction will be or when it will occur.

“We are now announcing, this week, small reductions, at first every week, in the price of fuel,” he said, although the state-owned price policy does not have defined deadlines for price adjustments.

In this Monday’s statement, Petrobras says that “product price adjustments are carried out in the normal course of its business and follow its commercial policies”, which provide for the monitoring of markets and daily analysis of the behavior of prices in relation to international quotations.

The company also repeated that it does not anticipate readjustment decisions to authorities. The text of this Monday is similar to the one released when Bolsonaro stated, at the end of October, that the state-owned company was about to announce new increases.

The statement came just before the last announcement of readjustments in gasoline and diesel prices, on October 25th, which prompted an attempt to bring truck drivers to a national stoppage in early November. Since then, the state-owned company has not changed the prices of the two products.

The market, however, expects some transfer of the fall in international oil prices in recent weeks, in response to the advance of the omicron variant around the world.

An international benchmark traded in London, Brent oil, for example, started at US$ 80 (R$ 455, at the current price) per barrel at the end of November and today fluctuates around US$ 70 (R$ 397) per barrel.

The company, however, repeats that it tries not to transfer specific volatilities from abroad to the domestic market, preferring to assess the scenario in a longer term.

“Petrobras reiterates its commitment to the practice of competitive prices and in balance with the market, while avoiding the immediate transfer of external and exchange rate volatility caused by cyclical events”, he reinforced on Monday.

In the year, the price of gasoline in refineries accumulates an increase of 74%. Diesel prices rose 65% in the same period.