Coordinated publications on Facebook mislead by stating that R$ 5 billion were stolen from public coffers in the construction of the Premium 1 refinery, in Bacabeira, Maranhão. The project, which, in fact, was not completed, generated a loss of R$ 2.1 billion for Petrobras, according to the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União), and is still under investigation.
The post, verified by Projeto Comprova, also errs in stating that “TCU did not see” the case. The agency has audited the project since 2011 and has already pointed out irregularities over the years, which were mentioned in the final report of Petrobras’ CPI in the Chamber of Deputies.
Also accused of “not seeing” the situation, according to the post, the press reported the cancellation of the works, the reflection of the broken promise and the impact that the decision had on the accounts of the state-owned oil company.
The publication also misleads when saying that the video used, showing the then president Lula (PT) and his team, is from February 7, 2005. The recording, a report, was originally published on January 19, 2010 on the channel. Maranhão TV program on YouTube.
When contacted, the author of the post, who appears in 11 different Facebook groups, did not respond to the contact. Comprova found the content misleading because it uses inaccurate data.
How do we check?
To find the original video, we did a YouTube search with the name of the channel that appears at the end of the video published in the post verified here and the name of the state: MA TV Maranhão. The first result is the Maranhão TV program channel.
Within the channel, in the videos tab, a new search was made for the keywords “Petrobras” and “Premium I”.
The second video that appears among the results is the same as the post for this verification and was posted on January 19, 2010. This date has been confirmed as correct with other reports from the same time.
The next step was to research reports on the launch, construction and cancellation of the refinery’s work.
Subsequently, the report contacted Petrobras’ press office by phone and email.
We also verify the investigations of authorities and control bodies. On the Chamber’s website, it was possible to find the page with the final report and the Petrobras CPI document itself. The final report mentions cases opened at the Federal Court of Accounts. On the TCU website, with the figures mentioned, it was possible to make queries for each one. We are also seeking information from the Senate. We contacted the Coaf press office (Council for the Control of Financial Activities), but we did not get any feedback.
We made contact with the Communication Department of the Maranhão state government, which did not respond to the inquiries. We are still looking for the Municipality of Bacabeira, but the phone and email available on the city’s website do not work. On the Facebook page, we sent a message, but there was no response.
Verification
Start
The construction of a refinery in Maranhão had been mentioned by the federal government in 2007 in its PAC (Development Acceleration Plan). In the text, the state would receive investments in three axes: logistics, energy and social infrastructure. The amount foreseen in the PAC was R$ 9.1 billion, of which 5.6% was destined to the energy axis, which included the oil refinery.
The Premium 1 project, by Petrobras, in the municipality of Bacabeira, 60 kilometers from São Luís, was launched in 2010 by former president Lula (PT) and the Chief of Staff at the time, Dilma Rousseff. The promise was that the factory would start operating in 2015.
The construction was included in Petrobras’ 2014-2018 Business and Management Plan and in PAC2. However, the state-owned company canceled the implementation of the refinery in 2015. If the work had been completed, it would represent the largest refinery in Brazil, with the capacity to produce around 600,000 barrels of oil per day.
work canceled
There are a few reasons why the construction of the refinery has not been completed. One of them is that TCU pointed out irregularities in the work. In an April 2013 inspection report, the agency identified serious signs of irregularity in the earthworks — the only work that started but was stopped. According to TCU, it was only on November 1, 2010, eight months after the launch, and with the earth moving already underway, that a contract was signed for the elaboration of the refinery’s basic project.
Another reason: in information collected on the Senate website, the partnership between Chinese oil company Sinopec and Petrobras to build Premium I did not take off because the Chinese made it clear that they did not trust price parity in Brazil (balance between domestic fuel prices and of oil in the international market) and demanded a minimum profitability of 12% per year —while Petrobras worked with an index of 8.7%. The refinery would process diesel for export.
In addition, a third point highlighted was the destruction of vegetation in Maranhão, which caused environmental damage due to earthworks and other services —cited in the TCU report. In 2017, Petrobras was ordered to pay BRL 53.7 million for this matter, in a decision resulting from a public civil action filed by the State Attorney General.
The fact that the project was started without a basic project was also pointed out by TCU.
Premium 1’s work was the subject of investigations in the Chamber of Deputies at Petrobras’ CPI. Irregularities in the refinery were pointed out, based on processes of the Federal Court of Accounts: overpricing resulting from a spreadsheet game, a practice in which the builder changes values during the execution of the work, damaging the contract (process 007.321/2011-2); planning failure, causing unjustifiable additions and delays in works and services with losses to Petrobras (006280/2013-7).
Expenses
With earthmoving, construction of perimeter channels, construction site and access bridges and fences, Petrobras spent R$ 583 million.
In addition, the TCU pointed out that another R$1 billion was spent on projects, training, transport and environmental studies by the state company.
When contacted, Petrobras released a document with the consolidated results for the third quarter of 2015, when there was a write-off of the works at the Premium 1 and Premium 2 refineries — the latter in Ceará. According to the document, there was a loss of R$ 2.7 billion in both. According to a G1 report at the time, BRL 2.1 billion were from Premium 1 and BRL 596 million from Premium 2.
Item 561 of the TCU document indicates that “in 2015, due to the funding limitation [financiamento] and due to the lack of partners for the project, the partial closure of the projects was proposed, with a loss of R$ 2.8 billion accounted for until December 2014”.
articulated action
The author of the post identifies himself on Facebook as Marcos Rocha and is part of the “#bolsonarotemrazão” group on the same network, where he published the verified content here. The reporter tried to get in touch, but he didn’t respond.
After he published the misleading information, it was shared on seven public Facebook groups at the same time, all of which were in support of (non-party) President Jair Bolsonaro. About an hour later it was posted in four other groups.
Why do we investigate?
In its fourth phase, Comprova checks suspicious content about the pandemic, federal government public policies and elections. The post verified here was used in coordinated action and published in 11 different groups, seven of them at the same time, and, according to the CrowdTangle tool, totaled around 500 interactions until November 10, 2021. On the author’s page publication, it was viewed 1,300 times.
By increasing the value and alleging theft of money invested in Petrobras works during the Lula government, the publication tries to discredit the politician, who leads Datafolha’s poll of intention to vote for president in 2022, being Bolsonaro’s main competitor.
Comprova has already verified other content that distorts the truth to favor the current president, such as the one falsely accusing Lula and Dilma of having paid 6,000 euros at a dinner in Paris and the one that takes out of context a table with data from Bolsa Família.
Misleading, for the Comprova, is the content taken from the original context and used in another so that its meaning changes; that it uses inaccurate data or that it induces an interpretation different from its author’s intention; content that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.
Comprova performed this verification based on information available on November 10th of 2021.
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I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.
