Petrobras oil tankers approve stoppage on Friday – 03/20/2023 – Market

The Single Federation of Petroleum Workers (FUP) and its Petrobras employee unions approved a strike at the start of business hours next Friday (24th), in protest against the sale of company assets, according to a statement sent this Monday. fair (20).

The FUP and its unions also approved, last Friday, a calendar of meetings to evaluate a possible strike for the category.

The movement comes after the company’s executive board, still largely made up of directors elected in the previous management, decided after preliminary analyzes to resume the process of transferring assets that had sales contracts signed.

Petrobras has pending signed transactions of more than US$ 2 billion.

The analyzes were carried out following a request from the Ministry of Mines and Energy at the beginning of the month for a suspension of asset sales for 90 days, due to the reassessment of the National Energy Policy, which generated insecurity among market agents.

The processes in which there were no final contracts signed will continue to be evaluated by the oil company.

In a note, FUP’s general coordinator, Deyvid Bacelar, said that the board’s “quick” deliberation goes against what was defended in the campaign by the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

“It is inadmissible that professionals aligned with the previous government remain embedded in the company’s management, making unfeasible and boycotting the government program that was approved at the ballot box,” said Bacelar in the note.

After the beginning of President Lula’s government, only the president of the state-owned oil company was changed in the company’s top leadership.

Sought, Petrobras did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Generally, the company puts contingency teams to work in operations, avoiding a more pronounced impact on production when the stoppage is not extensive.

Currently, names indicated to the board and board of the state-owned company by the Union and by the new president, Jean Paul Prates, undergo internal tests of integrity and eligibility.

In the case of the council, appointed by the Union, the expectation is that the new names can be approved at a shareholders’ meeting at the end of April. But the government has already made two changes to the list of nominees, in addition to suggesting new names recently, amid fears of vetoes in view of rules contained in the Law of State-owned Companies.