Petrobras does not want a setback, says president of the state-owned company, two days before the election

In a rare participation in a public event, the president of Petrobras, Caio Paes de Andrade, defended this Thursday (29) the management of the state-owned company during the Bolsonaro government and said that the company “does not want a setback”.

The statements were made at the end of Rio Oil & Gas, a fair that brought together the oil sector in Rio de Janeiro. In the midst of being treated for cancer, Paes de Andrade had sent a video for the opening of the event. At the end, he participated in a debate by videoconference.

“Like Brazil, Petrobras got back on its feet, Petrobras wants to move forward,” he said. “Petrobras doesn’t want a setback, we’re going to move forward with the process of opening up the market, improving governance,” he said.

In his speeches, he defended the government’s achievements and repeated a few times that Brazil is a “safe haven for investment”, as the Minister of Mines and Energy, Adolfo Sachsida, likes to say, who had also participated in the opening of the event with a speech in defense of the government.

Also present at the closing ceremony, the director of Institutional Relations and Sustainability, Rafael Chaves, reinforced the speech: “There can be no setbacks, I am sure that Brazil will not enter the path of setbacks.”

Chaves added that he has been with the company for a long time and that he followed the change in the company, citing the corruption scheme investigated by Operação Lava Jato. “It has been a privilege to be ahead of Petrobras for the last four years,” he said.

Paes de Andrade and Chaves closed Rio Oil & Gas alongside the president of the IBP (Brazilian Institute of Oil and Gas), Roberto Ardenghy, who was director of the state-owned company during the Roberto Castello Branco administration, president who was fired by Bolsonaro in 2021 in 2021. amid pressures against fuel increases.

During the four days of the fair, oil companies and specialists invited to speak defended the process of opening the sector to private capital, criticizing proposals to suspend Petrobras’ divestments, mainly in the refining area.

So far, the state-owned company has sold only one large refinery, located in Bahia, purchased by the Arab fund Mubadala. It even negotiated others, but contractual impasses and threats of intervention in fuel prices prevented the closing of operations.

Bolsonaro asked for studies for the privatization of Petrobras, amid the escalation that took fuel prices to historic records in the country, but the matter went into the background after prices began to decline.

Dissatisfaction with the record values ​​led Paes da Andrade to the command of the state-owned company three months ago. His mission, according to Bolsonaro, was to give “new dynamics” to fuel prices. It was facilitated by falling international prices and tax cuts passed by Congress in June.

According to opponents, he has managed in line with the Palácio do Planalto, announcing price cuts almost weekly on the eve of the elections, weakening the company’s governance and accommodating government allies in charge of the company.