Lula: Even though Petrobras is proving successful, someone always tries to sell a piece

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) stated this Friday (20) that there are people who insist on insinuating that Petrobras has disadvantages for privatizing parts of the company. The statement was made on the president’s agenda at the Gabriel Passos Refinery, in Betim (MG), where, according to the president, 240,000 barrels of oil per day will be produced.

“Even though Petrobras proves the success it has, someone always appears to insinuate some disadvantage in Petrobras in order to sell a piece of Petrobras,” declared the president.

Regarding the oil crisis created after the start of the conflict in the Middle East, Lula complained about the sale of BR Distribuidora, which began in 2019, on the grounds that it was not profitable. The president stated that if the company were under state control, there would be a guarantee that the prices passed on by Petrobras would reach the consumer.

“If BR had it in our hands, we would have the guarantee that the price that Petrobras increases or does not increase would reach the pump for the consumer”, he said. According to Lula, there should have been a strike so that the privatization of BR Distribuidora would not be completed.

The president also said that he will repurchase the Landulpho Alves Refinery, in São Francisco do Conde (BA), even if it “takes a while”. The facility was sold to the Mubadala Capital fund for US$1.65 billion, in 2021, during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

“They sold the Bahia refinery, we are going to buy the Bahia refinery. It may take a while, but we are going to buy it”, he declared. When referring to the past administration, Lula said that oil workers know which governments tried to “build and destroy”.

The president also said that Petrobras, despite being a mixed capital company and having shares available on the New York Stock Exchange, needs to understand that it belongs to Brazil, and not the other way around.

“Petrobras is important, it is a mixed economy company, it has shares on the New York Stock Exchange and we respect all of that. But Petrobras has to know that it does not own Brazil, it is Brazil that owns it”, he stated.

The president also said that the federal government is trying to resolve the impasses on the Equatorial Margin. While this does not happen, Lula said that he is negotiating exploration on the coast of Namibia and that he had a green light given by Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, with whom he spoke on the 10th.

“We are trying to resolve oil exploration in the Equatorial Margin and we will find out if there is a lot of oil, because there is in Guyana and there is in Suriname. It is not possible that God has not left a little for us. It is not possible. We are going to go back to Africa to explore”, declared Lula.