The appointment of José Mauro Ferreira Coelho for the command of Petrobras was defined by the government at the last minute, in a decision surrounded by secrecy and under the pressure of not leaving any room for further questioning.
The specter of the unsuccessful appointment of Adriano Pires, a businessman with ties to the gas industry and who ended up giving up due to the risk of conflicts of interest, led the government to resort to a homemade solution as a strategy.
According to reports collected by sheetthe gavel was only struck by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) on Wednesday afternoon (6), hours before the choice was officially announced by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
After several speculations about possible names, the effective nominations were known to a restricted circle: only Minister Bento Albuquerque (Mines and Energy) and Ciro Nogueira (Casa Civil), in addition to the president himself.
Not even palatial assistants or high-ranking secretaries of the MME participated in the negotiations that led to the choice of Ferreira Coelho.
The government waited for the market to close before disclosing the new names in charge of the company. In addition to Coelho, Márcio Weber was nominated for the presidency of the board of directors. He has been a member of the collegiate as one of its members since last year.
In recent days, the withdrawal of Pires and the uncertainty surrounding the new names for Petrobras penalized the company’s shares, which had three trading sessions down. The announcement of Coelho’s name reversed the decline, with the state-owned shares leading the stock market’s high this Thursday.
In an attempt to put an end to the friction surrounding the change in charge of the largest oil and gas company in Latin America, Bolsonaro wanted a quick choice, but at the same time accurate, with no room for another setback. The short deadline also weighed, since the shareholders’ meeting that will approve the names is scheduled for April 13.
The government opted for a homemade solution after running into difficulties to find someone in the market, with experience in the oil and gas sector, willing to take on the role less than nine months before the end of Bolsonaro’s current term. Thus, in the end, only technicians were quoted.
Assistant to Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy), the special secretary Caio Paes de Andrade was one of the names considered in recent days, as others were saying no to the proposal.
The name of the secretary was indicated by Guedes, but the minister avoided insisting on his choice. He ended up being passed over, according to reports, due to resistance from the MME and other actors in the political wing of the government: Paes de Andrade has no experience in the sector, unlike Coelho.
The name of the Economy had also received a weighty veto, that of the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), as shown by the sheet. The deputy also publicly criticized the possibility of choosing a name without experience in the area to run the company.
Coelho’s appointment on Wednesday was preceded by other tense meetings. Government allies were uncomfortable with Pires’ withdrawal and even called it amateurism to choose a name that would not pass the company’s compliance rules.
On Tuesday (5), Albuquerque met with President Jair Bolsonaro in Planalto to discuss alternatives. According to reports from government sources, the options given by the minister displeased the chief executive, who was already quite irritated by the impasse, and the mood turned sour.
In this context, the possibility of possibly postponing the election of the company’s president was considered, removing the matter from the agenda of the shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 13. This option was later discarded.
Before being appointed to the command of Petrobras, Coelho served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the state-owned PPSA (Pré-Sal Petróleo SA) and was in quarantine, after resigning in October last year, from the position of secretary of Oil, Gas and Biofuels from the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
Until being made official in the post, the new nominee has avoided speaking publicly. “This is the first stage, the appointment. We still have a way to go until the position becomes effective,” Coelho told sheetby message.
Coelho’s choice pleases parliamentarian and market
The choice for the presidency of Petrobras pleased parliamentarians. Deputy Christino Áureo (PP-RJ), coordinator of Freper (Parliamentary Front for the Sustainable Development of Petroleum and Renewable Energies), said he knew Coelho from the time he was secretary at the MME and had an advisor seat on the parliamentary front.
“It’s an excellent framework and will add a lot at this moment,” said Áureo. According to him, Coelho has “a good understanding of the environment and the moment” to understand the “difficulty points” of Petrobras. The deputy defends greater transparency in the company’s pricing policy, with eventual adjustments.
“It is necessary to have knowledge to discuss the equation [da política de preços]. I think he will have legitimacy for that”, said Áureo, noting that there is no way to anticipate what direction the new president of the company will take.
In the market, the first reactions to Coelho’s appointment were of confidence in the continuity of the company’s strategy and commercial policies, including the one that defines the price of fuels.
Coelho’s appointment was the second since Bolsonaro decided to fire General Joaquim Silva e Luna last week. The government even announced the businessman Adriano Pires, who withdrew the invitation, after suspicions of conflict of interest.
Bolsonaro had been publicly criticizing the general’s management, after the mega-adjustment in fuel prices promoted by the company. At different times, the president criticized Petrobras’ pricing policy.
The Chief of Staff, however, denied that the government intends to interfere in the way the state-owned company prices fuel.
THE sheetNogueira stated that the government expects from the new management of the state-owned company more transparency to society on the way in which the price of fuel is composed.
“It is a demagogic situation to say that the price of fuels is going to be in reais. Rice is in dollars, beans in dollars, alcohol is in dollars,” he said. “Petrobras will continue to be totally independent,” he added.
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