Jean Paul Prates is chosen for the presidency of Petrobras

Senator Jean Paul Prates (PT-RN) will be the new president of Petrobras in the government of president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

The name had already been circulated for weeks for the position. The announcement was made on the morning of this Friday (30th), after a meeting with Lula, at the hotel where the PT member is staying in Brasília.

The choice is seen as a sign that the future PT government will maintain a more active policy to avoid fluctuations in fuel prices. During his performance in the transitional cabinet, the parliamentarian declared that the fuel price policy is up to the government, not the state-owned company.

Jean Paul was part of the transition cabinet and was one of the coordinators of the Mines and Energy technical group. He was even appointed as one of the candidates for minister of the portfolio, which ended up being destined for the PSD — the nominee was Senator Alexandre Silveira (PSD-MG).

The PT congressman is considered a technician in the area and was the Senate’s rapporteur for bills voted to try to contain the rise in fuel prices. He defends the creation of a stabilization account, whose resources would be used to soften the impact of oscillations in prices. Possible sources of funds for this account would be oil royalties and export taxes, among others.

Jean Paul assumed his mandate in 2019, as an alternate for Fátima Bezerra (PT-RN), who was elected governor of her state. He is 54 years old and is a lawyer and economist, with more than three decades of experience working in the areas of oil, natural gas, biofuels, renewable energy and natural resources.

He was a member of the legal advisory of Braspetro (Petrobras international) and Secretary of State for Energy of Rio Grande do Norte.

During the performance of the transitional cabinet, some speeches by Prates provoked the reaction of the market, for suggesting that the government would have a more interventionist policy in fuel prices.

“Who defines price policy for anything in the country, if it will intervene or not, if it will be free or not, if it will be international or not, is the government. What is wrong and we have to undo it once and for all all is to say that Petrobras defines fuel price policy. It will not be like that. Will it follow the government policy? Of course”, he said.

Prates also said that Petrobras’ new board should review the dividend distribution policy.

PT members say that there is no legal impediment for him to occupy the post – that is, no changes in the State Law would be necessary for the appointment to take place.

Petrobras’ statute includes a restriction on members of political campaigns. As shown to Sheet, state-owned experts and advisers do not yet have an assessment on possible restrictions on the name of Prates.

The senator sought to formally distance himself from Lula’s campaign and did not assume coordination functions in the process. He helped with policy discussions for the area during the formulation of the government plan.