Petrobras cannot make party politics, says president fired from state-owned company

The current president of Petrobrasgeneral Joaquim Silva and Luna, again defended this Tuesday (29) the autonomy and the price policy of the state-owned company. Fired yesterday by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Silva e Luna remains in office until April 13, when the appointment of economist Adriano Pires to assume the position will be submitted to shareholders at a meeting. The switch comes amid political pressure on Petrobras due to rising fuel prices.

In an event by the Superior Military Court, Silva e Luna, who did not complete a year in the post, stated that Petrobras is a publicly traded state-owned company, and that, as much as it has a social responsibility, it cannot make public policy. and, “much less”, party politics.

“It is difficult for many people’s heads to understand why they don’t do that, they don’t communicate that way, they think they’re failing to communicate. No, the company cannot make public, party politics, the law does not allow it.”.

The general also stated that the state-owned company currently has “very strong governance”, with a series of regulatory bodies, and that, therefore, “there is no room for adventurers”. “One swallow does not make a summer, decisions are collective, they go through several instances until reaching a decision”.

When talking about the pricing policy that Petrobras currently practices for fuels, Silva e Luna stated that the import price (practiced in the international market) serves as a reference, not a mirror. He gave as an example the 18% rise in gasoline on March 10, which came after 57 days with no change in prices.

“We went 57 days without changing the price of fuel, and [o petróleo] went from US$82 to US$137 a barrel. What defined the maneuver was the risk of shortages, no one can buy more expensively to sell in here,” he said.

He stressed that the decision was communicated to the federal government. “We informed the government, I participated in meetings, I explained, there was all this confusion that is being made by the media, not by the media, for information of dubious interest”.

“Price is an equation and PPI is just one of the variables. We base ourselves on the foreign market, the price, the domestic market, if it is supplied, and the competition part, imports, the space it has in the market to negotiate, and the structural and conjunctural variation”, he said.

Silva e Luna said that the state company seeks to avoid passing on price volatility, but that the most recent rise in oil, with the war in ukrainegenerated a “permanent growth”, without a level of stability, which ended up generating the need to carry out a new readjustment.

The general also mentioned some initiatives that seek to reduce the impact of rising prices in Brazil, such as the diesel composition and the gas voucher, as well as a bill amending ICMS collection in fuels, which, according to him, “has not yet had any effect on price, but they are there”.

“Petrobras is not self-explanatory, it has to inform. I saw people saying that Petrobras does not communicate. For God’s sake. What he does most is communicate, but he cannot advertise, he does publicity, he has no authorization”.

For the current president of the state-owned company, fixing prices is a “risk that Brazil cannot take”. “From 2010 to 2015 the price was silently fixed, the loss was US$ 40 billion, this debt shows that Petrobras has. There is a risk of shortages, and regulatory instability, which alienates investors”.