In a statement, the company said it would continue to set fuel prices based on “benchmark markets”, but also clarified that its decision “ends the mandatory submission of prices to the equivalent import price ” in dollars.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who assumed the presidency for the third time in January, pledged during his election campaign to follow a Brazilian pricing policy for the company, saying the previous policy was intended to “please investors at the expense of the Brazilian people”. .”
Petrobras investors resisted changes in pricing policy, which helped Brazil’s largest company post record profits of $36 billion last year thanks to a global spike in fuel prices.
Petrobras followed the policy change by immediately announcing major price cuts of 12.6% for gasoline, 12.7% for diesel and 21.4% for cooking gas.
Petrobras Chairman and Senator Jean-Paul Prats said the move will make the company “more efficient and competitive”, and added, “We will remain the market benchmark without giving up the company’s competitive advantages.”
The markets welcomed the announcement. Analysts said investors feared more sweeping reforms to the international pricing policy in place since 2016.
On the other hand, the Brazilian authorities refused to grant “Petrobras” an environmental license to carry out exploratory drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River.
The government’s environment agency IBama said in its report on Wednesday that it refused to grant the license as the Petrobras project had “worrying inconsistencies in the safety of drilling operations” in the area. .
The excavation area proposed by Petrobras is located 180 km off the coast of the state of Amapá.
Last month, the environmental agency flagged “gaps” in its environmental assessment of the project’s impact, including the protection of wildlife in the event of an accident, or a plan for communicating with local indigenous villages.
According to the documents, there will be a “potential loss of environmental biodiversity in the event of oil spill accidents”.
In 2018, Ibama refused to grant a license to French oil company Total to carry out drilling activities in the area for similar reasons.
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