Petrobras deepens counteroffensive against Bolsonaro

The board of Brazil's state-controlled Petrobras has sent a second request to the mines and energy ministry seeking information about recent disparaging remarks by President Jair Bolsonaro.

The move is the latest counteroffensive by the company's management against government interference.

On 23 February, the day the board held an extraordinary meeting to consider Bolsonaro's surprise nomination of a new chief executive, the president said on that there "are many things wrong in Petrobras".

The company's back-to-back petitions on 23-24 February appear to be part of an investigation by Brazil's securities watchdog CVM into Bolsonaro's 19 February nomination of former army general Joaqim Silva e Lima to replace current chief executive Roberto Castello Branco, as a possible breach of disclosure rules.

The board has asked that chief financial officer Andrea Almeida inquire with the mines and energy ministry about material facts which must be disclosed to the market, Petrobras said in a securities filing last night.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declined to comment.

The marathon board meeting this week ended with a decision to convene an extraordinary shareholders meeting at which Castello Branco would likely be removed once his two-year term ends on 20 March. The date of the new meeting has not been set. The board said other directors would need to be re-elected or replaced.

The preliminary CVM investigation and a separate prosecutorial request for a separate probe at federal audit court TCU are increasing the political cost of Bolsonaro's move to oust Castello Branco, a technocrat who has overseen the company's market-based fuel pricing that has sparked a popular backlash.

The fuel pricing is critical to keeping the company's ambitious refinery sales program on track.

Petrobras released its latest earnings last night. The reversal of upstream impairments helped lift the firm to a $1.1bn profit in 2020, down from $10.2bn in 2019.

By Nathan Walters