President Luiz Inácio
Chambriard's predecessor,
“Our management, as expected, is fully aligned with President Lula’s and the federal government’s vision for the country,” Chambriard said during the ceremony. “After all, they are our majority shareholders.”
Fears of government interventionism in
Lula himself was jailed for almost 600 days as a result, although his conviction was later annulled. During the ceremony on Wednesday, Lula slammed the investigation's legacy.
“With the false argument of fighting corruption, Operation Car Wash was actually aimed at dismantling and privatizing Petrobras,” he said. “If the objective was to combat corruption, the corrupt should be punished and our people’s assets left intact. But that’s not what was done; what was done was an attempt to destroy the company’s image.”
The Intercept Brasil revealed collusion between prosecutors and Car Wash's crusading judge,
After beating Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential election, Lula returned to power for a third, non-consecutive term. Car Wash's prosecutions of scores of politicians and executives — celebrated at the time as great achievements in attacking longstanding impunity — have been further dismantled since last year. The
Such developments have contributed to worry that the scope or tolerance for graft may return. But Rafael Schiozer, a finance professor at the
“The company's governance has improved a lot. Managers today are aware of the responsibilities they have, and corruption is obviously punished,” he said.
Brazil’s government has a controlling stake in
At the event on Wednesday, Lula said he wants the company to be profitable — and that profits are a boon for investments and public spending across
Earlier this year,
Prates’ departure in the aftermath caused the company’s shares to fall a further 9% on the day of the announcement, before paring losses.
“Prates clearly had a philosophy of creating value for shareholders as the company’s primary objective,” said Schiozer, adding that Chambriard appears to give greater weight to the company's political role.
“That could be a problem if this involves investing in inefficient and/or unprofitable projects. We’re not sure this will occur, but that’s what happened under previous administrations,” he added.
Offshore Amazon Exploration
Like Prates, Chambriard has defended oil and gas exploration in a region known as the Equatorial Margin, an environmentally sensitive region near the mouth of the
She argues that
Ibama, the country’s environmental watchdog, has so far denied
The push to boost oil output is at odds with efforts to limit climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Lula has sought to cast himself as a climate leader while also supporting greater domestic production.
“Is it contradictory? Yes,” Lula said in an interview with radio station CBN on Tuesday. “We're betting big on the energy transition. Now, until the energy transition resolves our problem,
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