Petrobras “shot itself in the foot” by canceling the sale of a refinery in CE, says entity

The cancellation of the sale of the derivatives and asphalt refinery in Ceará – Lubnor – by Petrobras at the beginning of this week was harshly criticized by Refina Brasil, an association that brings together the country’s private refineries. The entity’s president, Evaristo Pinheiro, considered the act as a “shot in the foot” by the state-owned company by breaching the contract itself, in addition to sending a signal of a lack of predictability to foreign investments.

According to him, Petrobras sold an asset without owning the land where the unit is installed. The transfer of the land in Fortaleza, which belongs to the municipality and the Union, was not completed, leading to the termination of the deal by Petrobras.

“Petrobras took advantage of a condition that it itself did not fulfill to revoke the contract. The Brazilian government’s signaling is very bad, even more so at this time when it is in Riyadh looking for investments,” said Pinheiro in an interview with the newspaper The state of Sao Paulo published this Friday (1st).

The state-owned company justified that Grepar, the consortium that won the dispute, did not meet the conditions for the sale, while Pinheiro argues that Petrobras should be responsible for transferring the land. Grepar, in turn, announced its intention to take investments outside the country and will seek arbitration to receive the contractual fine and compensation for process costs.

The sale of Lubnor took place in May last year for US$34 million, and Grepar advanced 10% of the purchase, investing in prior studies. Upon assuming the presidency of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates expressed his desire to resume sold refineries, but respecting legal processes.

“What is not signed can be revised,” he stated at the time.

Refina Brasil denounces Petrobras’ attitude as an “abuse of power” and criticizes the stance of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade), which called for the review of both the state-owned company’s Term of Cessation of Conduct and the demands of the private refining sector . Pinheiro highlighted the need for competitive conditions and urgency in reviewing the ANP’s oil reference price.

“Petrobras is abusing its power, and is now going to Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) asking to review the TCC (Term of Cessation of Conduct) that forced it to sell more refineries. Petrobras will not be able to do everything, and our derivatives market is deficient, we need to rely on the private sector”, he stated.

Last week, Petrobras announced that it will invest US$17 billion in refining, transporting and selling oil and oil products in the coming years, an amount 80% greater than the previous forecast. Since the beginning of the year, the government has been talking about resuming the policy of strengthening Brazilian refineries.

“The Brazilian Constitution says that we operate under a regime of free competition and under antitrust law it is necessary to have competitive conditions”, added Pinheiro.