RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA, Dec 30 (Reuters) – The nomination of a Brazilian senator and longtime power guide to steer Petrobras (PETR4.SA) suggests President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva desires the state-run agency to pivot to extra renewable power tasks.
Since 2019, Petroleo Brasileiro SA has doubled down on deep, and extremely deep-water exploration and manufacturing, whereas additionally promoting off much less productive property to decrease its debt load.
However Jean Paul Prates, nominated on Friday to be chief government, has been advocating for greater investments in renewables.
“Petrobras is an organization for the long term and can't simply preserve exploring sub-salt oil and paying dividends,” Prates stated in a press convention this month.
Prates, a senator for the previous 4 years, will turn out to be the primary politician to carry a high-ranking workplace at Petrobras in a number of years. Nonetheless, his nomination could calm buyers' fears that Lula would faucet a meddlesome supervisor to run the oil firm.
Final month, Prates, a distinguished voice on power coverage inside Lula's Staff Get together, stated the brand new administration wouldn't have an interventionist stance on Petrobras, had no intention of inflicting a “breakdown” of the corporate and would talk about the whole lot with market gamers.
“He was your best option contemplating the upcoming situation,” stated a present government, talking on situation of anonymity whereas working underneath outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro.
Petrobras shares plunged as a lot as 25% after Lula defeated Bolsonaro in an October vote, however have pared losses since hitting a five-month low in mid-December.
A second Petrobras supply stated Prates, who holds a masters diploma in power planning from the College of Pennsylvania and one other one in oil economics from the French Institute of Petroleum, “is aware of in regards to the sector,” including they hoped he would take a “average stance”.
Petrobras, Prates and the transition group's press officer didn't instantly reply to requests for remark.
The reservoir of trade information boasted by Prates, who based an power consulting agency three a long time in the past, received unlikely reward from Bolsonaro's former mines and power minister Bento Albuquerque.
Views elsewhere are blended.
Former Petrobras CEO Joaquim Silva e Luna, who additionally served underneath Bolsonaro, recalled Prates as a harsh opponent of the present gasoline pricing coverage which pegs native gasoline to worldwide costs and international trade charges.
Prates has defended greater Petrobras investments within the refining sector as a solution to safe Brazil's gasoline provide. Luna stated Prates would possibly droop Petrobras' refinery gross sales, a part of a 2019 settlement with antitrust regulator CADE to open up Brazil's refining sector to non-public gamers.
“I am not able to make a price judgment,” Luna advised Reuters. “He is aware of in regards to the sector, however the whole lot will rely upon the group he will construct.”
Within the Senate, Prates is seen as a combative lawmaker who sponsored payments on power transition and sustainability at a time of hovering deforestation in Brazil. He's often known as a very good negotiator, which earned him the minority chief place throughout Bolsonaro's time period.
Amongst his proposals have been a gasoline worth stabilization mechanism and a mission establishing a framework for offshore wind farms.
“I feel he's probably the most (economically) liberal of all of the Staff Get together members,” stated right-wing Senator Soraya Thronicke, who ran for president in opposition to Lula this yr.
Reporting by Marta Nogueira and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro, Maria Carolina Marcello in Brasilia; Writing by Gabriel Araujo; Modifying by David Gregorio
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