The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, dismissed this Tuesday the president of the state oil company Petrobras, Jean-Paul Prates, after months of disagreements with some executive ministers.
Prates had held the position since January 2023, when he was appointed by Lula himself, who had just assumed the presidency of Brazil.
Petrobras approves candidate nominated by Lula da Silva to lead the company
Petrobras confirmed in a note that Prates asked the government-controlled Board of Directors “to meet to consider the early termination of his mandate” as president of the company “in a negotiated manner.”
“Once the indicated closure is approved, he intends to subsequently present his resignation as a member of the Petrobras Board of Directors,” the statement reads.
According to the local press, Lula proposed Magda Chambriard for the positionwho was director of the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) in the government of Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016).
With a degree in Law and Economics and with more than 30 years of experience in the oil sector, Prates left a place in the Senate to direct Petrobras, controlled by the Brazilian State, but with shares listed on the stock exchanges of São Paulo, New York. and Madrid. .
During his mandate, Prates reaffirmed the strategic nature of the oil company as an engine of the country’s economic growth, in line with Lula’s vision.
It announced an ambitious investment plan of 102 billion dollars (about 94.3 billion euros) between 2024 and 2028, changed the pricing policy and resumed with greater emphasis business lines that were paralyzed during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). , as refinement.
In 2023, the oil company’s net profit fell 33.8% compared to 2022 and, in the first quarter of this year, it registered a drop of 37.9% compared to the same period last year, according to results published on Monday .
It was at the end of the first quarter when an internal crisis began over the distribution of dividends. extraordinary for fiscal year 2023.
This discussion about dividends raised doubts about Prates’ continuity, after having disagreed with some ministers of Lula’s government, in addition to causing the company to fall on the stock market. Prates was in favor of the distribution, but the government was against the measure.
In the midst of this controversy, Lula said, in an interview with the SBT television channel, that he wanted the oil company’s extraordinary profits not to be distributed, but rather reinvested, because Petrobras “has to think about the 200 million Brazilians who own the company”. ”.
Finally, the head of state approved the distribution of 50% of the 2023 extraordinary dividends to shareholders and considered the crisis over.
However, this Tuesday Lula decided to change Petrobras’ course, on the eve of traveling to the state of Rio Grande do Sul, devastated by serious floods.
Source: Observadora
