The results of the last quarter were “extremely solid and within expectations”, said the president of Petrobras, Magda Chambriard, in a press conference online on the company’s results for the second quarter of 2024. Petrobras had a negative result of R$2.6 billion, according to the balance sheet disclosed on the night of last Thursday (8).
According to Chambriard, the result was punctual and profits should return in the coming quarters. “We had non-recurring events in this second quarter, non-recurring events that are absolutely known to the market.”
She then highlighted among these events the tax agreement with the Ministry of Finance – Petrobras closed negotiations involving R$19.80 billion to end the state-owned company’s disputes over remittances abroad for payment of charters for oil exploration vessels -, the 2023-2025 wage agreement and the exchange rate devaluation that occurred in the second quarter of this year.
“If these factors were not considered, we would be presenting a positive result in line with that observed in the last quarter,” he said.
Despite the negative result in the second half of 2024, Petrobras reported that it will pay dividends to shareholders, following the state-owned company’s Dividend Policy, which guarantees remuneration.
According to the balance sheet, the company approved R$13.6 billion in dividends and interest on equity to be paid to shareholders in two installments, in November and December, using R$6.4 billion from the capital remuneration reserve.
Among the shareholders who will receive the remuneration is the Union itself, which holds the largest share of the company’s shares: 28.67%.
In an interview, Petrobras’ board of directors stated that it does not rule out paying extraordinary dividends. The CFO and Investor Relations Director, Fernando Melgarejo, said that the payment will depend on the company’s ability to finance its projects between 2025 and 2029.
“The possibility of us making extraordinary dividend payments this year is not ruled out. The sooner we have a clearer vision, the more accurate our future cash flows, both future generation, expenses and the operating cash that we have in this period, the sooner we will carry out the analyses and propose, if necessary, the distribution of extraordinary dividends,” he said.
Price increase
The board was also asked, in the interview, whether the loss in the quarter could have been smaller if the company had readjusted the price of fuel at refineries earlier.
The director of Logistics, Sales and Markets, Claudio Schlosser, stated that the company followed the commercial strategy launched in May 2023.
“An extremely important element of our commercial strategy is precisely not to transfer these variations that we call volatility to the domestic market. So, you follow and know very well that every news item that appears on the market, you see oil prices soar, you see derivatives prices change, at some point they increase, at some point they plummet and we evaluate this in the scenario of the main market fundamentals”, he explained.
Chambriard reinforced the commitment to maintain this strategy and said that he had observed, in recent months, a slight loss of market share, which could have been aggravated by the increase in prices.
“We are doing all this very attentive to the trend of international prices, attentive to our competitors, but when we look at the last few months of fuel sales, we see even a slight loss of market share [participação no mercado]. It’s subtle, but it’s there. And that’s what shows that we’re absolutely right in our pricing strategy. Raising the price now would be giving up market sharewhich is far from our intention.”
Route 3 Gas Pipeline
Petrobras also announced that the Rota 3 Gas Pipeline is expected to begin operating by September of this year. The Rota 3 project aims to expand the flow of natural gas from projects in operation in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin.
“An extremely relevant delivery for the state of Rio de Janeiro and for increasing the availability of natural gas throughout the Brazilian territory”, highlighted the company’s president.
According to the Executive Director of Engineering, Technology and Innovation, Renata Baruzzi, the work “is going very well. We should complete the mechanical completion in August,” she said. She added that “in the third quarter we will start up the plant and begin bringing gas through Route 3.”
According to Petrobras, the Rota 3 Gas Pipeline is approximately 355 kilometers long, with 307 km of the maritime section and 48 km of the land section. It will transport natural gas from the Santos Basin Pre-Salt Complex to the Gaslub Complex in Itaboraí, where the Natural Gas Processing Unit (UPGN Rota 3) is located. The pipeline’s flow rate is approximately 18 million m³ of gas per day.
