Cade extends investigation into Petrobras five times – 12/10/2023 – Panel SA

Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) has already extended the open process five times to investigate possible abuse by Petrobras in the sale of crude oil to competing refineries in Brazil.

The administrative investigation into the case was opened in September 2022 and, since March of this year, its outcome has been postponed under the pretext that it is still necessary to analyze the information and documents presented.

Petrobras is questioned for allegedly imposing discriminatory prices and sales conditions on private refineries, mainly the one in Mataripe (BA), which would prevent them from competing on an equal footing with the state-owned refinery in the domestic market.

The Bahian plant, the largest in the private sector in the country, was sold by the state itself in 2021, during the Jair Bolsonaro government, within an agreement with Cade to dispose of assets in exchange for not being condemned in the process that precisely investigates abuses in the sale of inputs to competitors.

The new owner is Acelen, controlled by the Mubadala fund, from the United Arab Emirates.

Acelen requests a preventive measure from Cade so that Petrobras is forced to offer market rivals the same pricing policy and the same supply volumes that apply to its refineries.

In 2022, the refinery sold more expensive fuel than Petrobras. The result was that, at the time, a liter of gasoline was sold in Bahia at R$11 per liter, the highest in the country.

In October, Acelen asked Cade to resolve the issue quickly, given the alleged losses suffered, but last month there was another extension.

One of the arguments made by Acelen and other actors is that Petrobras has a dominant position in the market and, therefore, can impose negotiation conditions on competitors.

The company alleges that the state-owned company adopts a “deliberate strategy” to harm its operations and so that its prices to distributors are higher. This would include not only the price of crude oil, but the reduction in volumes offered, the delivery of oil streams that are not well processed by the Bahian refinery and even the imposition of logistical difficulties for supply.

Petrobras vehemently denies discriminatory treatment. It maintains that it negotiates and supplies Mataripe under commercial market conditions.

“The applicant wants special treatment to obtain input under more advantageous conditions, in order to increase its profitability to the detriment of Petrobras and without having to make an investment to become more efficient”, it says in the case, adding that the process is an attempt to instrumentalize Cade to impose a commercial relationship on it “outside market conditions”.

One of the main controversies in the case concerns the possibility of private refineries purchasing oil from groups other than Petrobras, and escaping possible impositions from the state-owned company.

There are, in fact, other companies operating in exploration, but data from the process indicates that they have destined their production abroad.

With Diego Felix

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