The Ministry of Mines and Energy reported in a statement that the Government, as the majority shareholder of the oil company, sent a statement to Petrobras on Monday in which it presents a list with the names of nine members that it is applying to integrate the Board of Directors of Petrobras. the company, including the new candidate for president, who will replace reserve general Joaquim Silva e Luna.
“The list presents Mr. Rodolfo Landim as a candidate to exercise the Presidency of the Board of Directors and Mr. Adriano Pires for the exercise of the Presidency of the company,” the statement said.
Despite the fact that the Government had previously announced its decision to renew the Board of Directors of the oil company and to nominate Landim as its new head, the decision to present a new candidate for the presidency of Petrobras was not planned.
However, since last week press reports indicated that Bolsonaro wanted to replace the president of the largest company in Brazil due to his dissatisfaction with the constant increases in fuel prices, which placed year-on-year inflation at 10.54%, his highest level in six years, just six months before the presidential elections in Brazil.
Petrobras, a company controlled by the State but with shares traded on the Sao Paulo, New York and Madrid stock exchanges, approved several years ago a policy that defines fuel prices in Brazil based on the international price of crude oil. .
With the price of oil above 100 dollars for several weeks due to the effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the value of fuels also shot up in Brazil, with a strong negative effect on inflation.
In the eleven months of Silva e Luna’s administration, the price of gasoline rose by 27% in Brazil and that of diesel, the fuel most used by cargo and public transport vehicles, by 47%.
Silva e Luna, a military man who had the full confidence of Bolsonaro, assumed the presidency of the company in April of last year due also to the far-right leader’s dissatisfaction with his predecessor, the economist Roberto Castello Branco, who gave priority to the interests shareholders and not those of the Government.
But since the company is listed on the stock exchange, Bolsonaro does not have the power to automatically remove the president of Petrobras and therefore has to wait for the Board of Directors to meet and approve the decisions of the Government, the company’s controlling partner.
The Board of Directors has a meeting scheduled for next April 13, in which it will vote on its renewal and the election of Landim as its president, but the Government decided to modify the guideline and request that the election of Adriano Pires as new state commander.
If the Government’s request is approved, Silva e Luna will have to leave the company because his name does not even appear among the candidates to join the Board of Directors.
Landim, who currently serves as president of the popular Flamengo soccer club, has extensive experience in executive positions at Petrobras and was already president of BR, the then subsidiary of the company – today privatized – responsible for the distribution of fuels.
The entrance Bolsonaro replaces the president of Petrobras due to dissatisfaction with prices was first published in diary TODAY.
