President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participated, this Thursday (15), in the resumption of activities at the fertilizer factory Araucária Nitrogenados SA (Ansa), a subsidiary of Petrobras, which will receive R$870 million in investment for its reopening. The unit was closed in 2020, and its workers were laid off.
In early July, 215 former employees of the factory resumed their activities at the factory and the expectation is that, during the intervention to return to operations, more than 2 thousand jobs will be generated. After the return of production, scheduled for the second half of 2025, around 700 direct jobs should be maintained.
At Petrobras’ Presidente Getúlio Vargas Refinery (Repar), located next to Ansa in the municipality of Araucária (PR), the company expects to invest R$3.2 billion by 2028, generating 27,000 direct and indirect jobs. The unit is responsible for approximately 15% of the national market for petroleum derivatives, serving mainly the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, southern São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul.
“We are not restoring a fertilizer factory, we are not just making an investment of almost R$4 billion, we are taking care of restoring the self-esteem of this country, the pride of the Brazilian people and the pride of being Brazilian, because what matters to us as workers is having a guaranteed job, having a fair salary and taking care of our family with respect,” said Lula, lamenting the halt in investments in Petrobras units in recent governments.
Earlier, in an interview with Rádio T, in Paraná, Lula highlighted the importance of manufacturing fertilizers in Brazil to reduce dependence on imports of these inputs. “A fertilizer factory in a country with enormous agricultural potential and in a state like Paraná, which has very strong agricultural production, to stop building a fertilizer factory to produce nitrogen, to produce urea, is unthinkable,” said Lula.
“It is irresponsible for us not to take into account that Brazil cannot import 90% of the inputs we need to make our agriculture reach its current potential, so we are recovering this,” the president added in the interview.
Nitrogen fertilizers, such as urea, are widely used by the agricultural sector in the country and are considered essential for providing one or more nutrients to crops. The basis for producing urea is ammonia, which is extracted from the combination of hydrogen and nitrogen. hydrogen comes from natural gas.
Brazil consumes 8% of the world’s total fertilizer production, estimated at 55 million tons, but imports 85% of the input used by agribusiness. Ansa has a production capacity of 720 thousand tons of urea per year, which corresponds to 8% of the local market.
According to Petrobras, the company’s 2024-2028 Strategic Plan includes, in total, investments of R$60 billion in expansion of the country’s oil refining park and around R$6 billion in fertilizer factories.
Car Wash
During his speech, Lula became emotional when he spoke of the pride he feels in wearing the Petrobras shirt, which he wore at the event. The company was the main target of the Operation Car Washwhich promised to combat corruption in the country’s oil and gas sector during the PT governments. The operation, however, cost the Brazilian economy dearly and left the challenge of rebuilding the sectors.
“I would often get depressed and cry when I heard about fellow Petrobras workers who would go into restaurants to eat or bars and would often be called thieves, because they managed to create in the minds of those who don’t like us the idea that everyone at Petrobras was a thief, including those who were responsible for the greatness of Petrobras, which are its workers,” said Lula.
