In live, the president said he knows that there are laws, but appeals for the company not to readjust the price of fuels
The president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) criticized the profit disclosed by Petrobras this Thursday (May 5, 2022) and said that the state-owned company can no longer increase fuel prices because this will “break Brazil”. The statement was made during the live weekly.
“Petrobras, we are at war! Petrobras, don’t raise fuel prices anymore! Your profit is rape, it’s absurd! You can no longer raise the price of fuel”, Bolsonaro said.
The president stated that he did his part, but that he was not in charge of the company. He also criticized the PT governments for interfering with fuel prices and for “other actions aimed at corruption”.
According to the Chief Executive, Petrobras’ profit is even greater with the “crisis”, reaching 30%, double when compared to the profit of international oil companies. It claims that the state “does not understand or does not want to understand” that a new increase can cause a “national upheaval”.
The president called it a “crime” the possible increase in diesel in the country and that the population pays the bill for the profit of the state-owned company. He cited the effects of the war in Ukraine on the Brazilian economy, saying that “the people have lost their purchasing power”and recalled that the salary of the company’s president is 7 times his own, of R$ 33,000.
PRESIDENCY OF PETROBRAS
The chemist José Mauro Coelho took over the presidency of Petrobras on April 14, 2022. He defended the current pricing policy, equated with the price of a barrel of oil abroad, and said that the increase in oil and natural gas production was only possible thanks to this new policy.
Coelho replaced Joaquim Silva e Luna, fired by Bolsonaro in March, a few days after Petrobras’ increase of almost 25% in diesel and almost 19% in gasoline at refineries. The president has already blamed the company several times for the rise in fuel prices.
In his speech, Coelho recalled the company’s last managements and declared that, in 2014, Petrobras’ gross debt was US$ 160 billion: “One of the biggest in the corporate world”. He also stated that, with the state-owned company’s new policy, the debt dropped to less than US$ 60 billion and made room for new investments.
“In 2021 alone, US$ 8.8 billion was invested. Petrobras is now the largest producer of oil and natural gas in Brazil. Producing about 2.2 million barrels of oil per day, which corresponds to 72% of national production. And we have a gross production of natural gas of 98 million cubic meters per day, 73% of Brazilian production”he said.
#Petrobras #profit #rape #Bolsonaro