Bolsonaro advocates intervention in Petrobras and fuel price predictability

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro told supporters on Friday, May 28, that he intervened in the change of command of Petrobras, and stressed that the new board of the oil company, chaired by General Joaquim Silva e Luna, is completing studies on a formula to ensure predictability to fuel price readjustments.

“He (the new president of Petrobras) is finalizing studies with the new board to ensure predictability in fuel increases,” the president said referring to Silva e Luna, later adding that “this is not intervention.”

In March, the president decided to fire the then CEO of Petrobras, Roberto Castello Branco, after showing dissatisfaction with the successive fuel price hikes since the start of the year. This decision had a strong impact on the market.

Asked by a supporter about the expectation of a drop in fuel prices, the president replied:

“Look, there is an automatic formula that varies according to the price of oil abroad and the value of the dollar here. So I said: if this is the way to readjust, anyone at Petrobras can do it, just follow the formula, right? Someone who knows how to add and subtract, doesn’t even need to know how to multiply and divide.”

The president also commented in his talk with supporters about the water crisis and the concerns about the impact on energy generation. “We are experiencing one of the greatest energy crises in the country, a hydrological crisis, we have a problem,” he said.

Source: Exame

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