Former ANP president refuses invitation to Petrobras, and Lira opposes Guedes’ adviser

The government of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) sounded out the former president of the ANP (National Petroleum Agency) Décio Oddone to fill a vacancy on the Petrobras board, but the executive declined the invitation.

On another front, the name of Caio Mário Paes de Andrade, advisor to Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) gains strength due to the government’s difficulty in finding a name, but he has a strong veto: that of Arthur Lira (PP-AL), president of the Chamber of Deputies.

The denial of the former president of the ANP adds to two others in recent days, which led the government to an impasse. Bolsonaro needs names to preside over the board, and the company until the shareholders’ meeting, which will take place on the 13th.

An engineer, Oddone has chaired Enauta, an oil and gas exploration and production company since 2020. Thus, according to government officials, he would run into the same compliance obstacles as Adriano Pires, who declined on Monday (5) the invitation to preside over the state-owned company.

With difficulty finding another option, Planalto allies say that the idea of ​​signing Paes de Andrade, special secretary for Debureaucratization, Management and Digital Government at the Ministry of Economy, is getting stronger.

Behind the scenes of the Economy, there is an assessment that, although he has no experience in the oil and gas sector, the current secretary should not have any impediments to fulfill his new role.

The president of the Chamber, in turn, tells interlocutors that he believes that the fact that Paes de Andrade does not have experience will make him unable to solve the problem of fuel prices.

The deputy also assesses that Pires had more skills to command the state-owned company and promote the necessary changes to avoid high fuel prices.

Allies of President Jair Bolsonaro, who also defend a name in the sector for the company, advocate that he participate more closely in the surveys, today carried out by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

According to palace assistants, Bolsonaro is very angry with the episode and wants to resolve the imbroglio as quickly as possible. The Minister of Mines and Energy has defended being calm to find a definitive name.

On Monday night, Adriano Pires sent a letter to Minister Bento Albuquerque denying the invitation to succeed General Joaquim Silva e Luna in command of the state-owned company.

“It became clear to me that I could not reconcile my work as a consultant with the exercise of the presidency of Petrobras. I immediately started the procedures to leave the Brazilian Center for Infrastructure, a consultancy I founded more than 20 years ago and which I currently manage in partnership with my During the process, however, I realized that unfortunately I am not able to do it in such a short time”, said Pires in a letter released by the ministry early Monday night.

In practice, although the exchange was announced, it would only take place on the 13th, at the company’s shareholders’ meeting, when the government presents its list of representatives to the board.

In a note on Monday, the state-owned company confirmed that it had received two official letters from the Ministry of Mines and Energy about the withdrawals of Pires and Rodolfo Landim – who had been nominated by the government to preside over the company’s board –, and that it had not received information about the substitute names.

The turmoil made Petrobras’ preferred shares, the most traded on the stock exchange, fall 0.88% on Monday, pulling the market down.

This will be the third change at the helm of the company during the Bolsonaro administration, and it comes at a particularly sensitive time.