The Brazilian government appointed former Petrobras executive Rodolfo Landim, the current president of Flamengo, to preside over the state-owned company’s board of directors, the company said in a statement on Saturday night (5).
Earlier, Petrobras’ chairman, Admiral Eduardo Bacellar Leal Ferreira, had told Reuters that he planned to step down.
Reuters had also reported the day before that Landim was seen as a possible successor, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
“Presidency of Petrobras’ board of directors is a 24-hour job and I want to spend more time with my family,” Ferreira said, adding that he has two adult children living outside Brazil.
Ferreira will stay until the end of his term. A shareholders’ meeting to renew the board was scheduled for April 13.
The announcement of the board change comes as Petrobras faces pressure from investors to raise fuel prices as oil approaches $120 a barrel.
The company controls gasoline and diesel prices in Brazil with over 80% of the country’s refining capacity.
Rodolfo Landim had a career at Petrobras before creating his own oil company, Ouro Preto, and selling it.
He worked at the state-owned company for 26 years and held several managerial positions in the Exploration & Production area. Between 2000 and 2003, Landim was president of Gaspetro, responsible for Petrobras’ equity interests in natural gas transport and distribution companies.
Between 2003 and 2006, he was president of Petrobras Distribuidora, which was privatized and renamed Vibra.
As indicated by the Ministry of Mines and Energy to Petrobras, the controlling shareholder also appointed the following names to the board: Carlos Eduardo Lessa Brandão; Joaquim Silva and Luna; Luiz Henrique Caroli; Márcio Andrade Weber; Murilo Marroquim de Souza; Ruy Flaks Schneider; and Sonia Julia Sulzbeck.
Luna, Weber, Souza, Schneider and Sulzbeck are already part of the current board, composed of three other directors representing minority shareholders and one of the employees.
Brandão, board member of the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance (IBGC), and Caroli, Admiral of the Navy Squadron, appear as new names.
The new directors should take office at a delicate moment for the company, which is under pressure not to pass on the rise in oil, at the same time as it seeks to follow its policy of parity between domestic fuel prices and international markets.
A growing chorus of politicians say that Petrobras should help pay for these higher oil costs.
On Thursday (3), President Jair Bolsonaro said that Petrobras knows its responsibility and what it can do so that fuel prices in Brazil do not soar despite the international rise in oil due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bolsonaro’s comments came after Petrobras last month broke its all-time record for annual profit and dividend payments in 2021, thanks to soaring oil.
On Wednesday (2), Chief Executive Joaquim Silva e Luna told Reuters that Petrobras had not yet made a decision on fuel price adjustments.
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