The nomination of a Brazilian senator and longtime energy consultant to lead Petrobras suggests President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wants the state-run firm to pivot to more renewable energy projects, said Reuters.
Since 2019, Petroleo Brasileiro SA has doubled down on deep, and ultra deep-water exploration and production, while also selling off less productive assets to lower its debt load. But Jean Paul Prates, nominated on Friday to be chief executive, has been advocating for higher investments in renewables.
"Petrobras is a company for the long run and cannot just keep exploring sub-salt oil and paying dividends," Prates said in a press conference this month. Prates, a senator for the past four years, will become the first politician to hold a high-ranking office at Petrobras in several years. Still, his nomination may calm investors' fears that Lula would tap a meddlesome manager to run the oil company.
Last month, Prates, a prominent voice on energy policy within Lula's Workers Party, said the new administration would not have an interventionist stance on Petrobras, had no intention of causing a "breakdown" of the company and would discuss everything with market players.
"He was the best choice considering the upcoming scenario," said a current executive, speaking on condition of anonymity while working under outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro. Petrobras shares plunged as much as 25% after Lula defeated Bolsonaro in an October vote, but have pared losses since hitting a five-month low in mid-December.
A second Petrobras source said Prates, who holds a masters degree in energy planning from the University of Pennsylvania and another one in oil economics from the French Institute of Petroleum, "knows about the sector," adding they hoped he would take a "moderate stance".
Petrobras, Prates and the transition team's press officer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The reservoir of industry knowledge boasted by Prates, who founded an energy consulting firm three decades ago, won unlikely praise from Bolsonaro's former mines and energy minister Bento Albuquerque.
We remind, Petrobras has started output at the Itapu pre-salt field in the Santos basin via the P-71 floating production, storage and offloading vessel. The P-71 FPSO, which features a processing capacity of 150,000 barrels per day of oil and 6 million cubic metres per day of natural gas, was deployed in water depths of 2010 metres. “We were able to anticipate production of the P-71 platform, which was originally scheduled for 2023,” said Petrobras production development director Joao Henrique Rittershaussen.
mrchub.com