The information, leaked by the Brazilian press, was confirmed at night by the Ministry of Mines and Energywhat proposed to the economist Adriano Pireswith more than three decades in the energy sector, as the candidate to replace it.
The appointment must be approved by the Board of Directors of the state company on April 13, the ministry reported.
The ministry also proposed businessman and engineer Rodolfo Landim, who worked at the state oil company for more than two decades, to chair the company’s Board of Directors. Landim is president of Flamengo, the most popular soccer club in Brazil.
Bolsonaro had appointed Silva e Luna, a general from the Army Reserve, in February of last year, also dissatisfied at that time with the constant price increases applied by the state company then chaired by the respected economist Roberto Castello Branco.
The far-right president has been criticizing the price policy of the state company for some time, which has set severe increases following the international price of crude oil, which has fueled inflation, very detrimental to his popularity before seeking re-election in October.
Petrobras applied in early March an increase of 18.8% to the price of gasoline and 24.9% to the price of diesel due to the “global increase in oil prices and its derivatives as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine” .
Petrobras shares fell 2.63% at the close of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange on Monday.
for the economist Alex Agostini, of the consulting firm Austin Rating, “these changes in the management of the company are not good. It is a sign that there is something wrong”.
“But not much is going to change for the market. If it is confirmed that the new president will be Adriano Pires, a specialist in the area of oil and gas, that will bring stability to the financial market.”because it will hardly intervene in Petrobras’ pricing policy, Agostini explained to AFP.
Doctor in Industrial Economics from Paris XIII University, he was, among other things, advisor to the General Director of the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels and is founder and director of the Brazilian Center for Infrastructure (CBIE), a consulting firm specialized in energy.
Pires has been in favor of the price policy practiced by the state company.
In an interview with CNN Brazil after the increase in early March, he said “there was no way that Petrobras would not raise prices, because the price gap between the internal and external markets was too large.”
“This difference was beginning to cause a risk of shortages in Brazil. The country imports 30% of what it consumes of oil derivatives. If the gap is too big, nobody matters and the stocks were already running out,” he said.
Petrobras, whose majority shareholder is the state, closed 2021 with a record profit of 19,875 million dollars (106,668 million reais).
According to the latest survey by the consulting firm Datafolha carried out in March, 75% of Brazilians believe that the government has “a lot” or “some” responsibility for the inflation that affects families’ pockets.
That same survey indicates that the far-right president would lose in a possible second round against former leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), by a difference of 21 points (55% to 34%).
Source: Ambito
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