After setbacks in the last few days, the government managed to appoint José Mauro Ferreira Coelho as Petrobras’s CEO and Márcio Andrade Weber as chair of the state-owned oil company.

The two positions were open after Adriano Pires and Rodolfo Landim gave up, this week, to run for these positions, respectively. The new names were seen by sources familiar with Petrobras as a victory for Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque, to whom the company is subordinated. “Bento has succeeded,” a source said.

Mr. Coelho is supported by his technical background in the industry – he chairs the state-owned company PPSA –, while Márcio Weber, the new candidate to be Petrobras’s chair, was an “internal solution” since he is a member of the current board of the oil company. He has experience in the oil market and enjoys the respect of the board members.

Coelho has a military background, having been an officer in the Army between 1983 and 1991, and a researcher at the Military Institute of Engineering. He also held the board of the Energy Research Company (EPE) and was secretary of oil and gas at the MME before joining the PPSA board. He has defended the practice of parity to international prices, a policy that Petrobras has followed since the Temer administration and that has been a frequent reason for the company’s wear and tear with President Jair Bolsonaro. The last two presidents: Roberto Castello Branco and Joaquim Silva e Luna were fired for readjusting fuel prices in the domestic market following oil variations in the international market. Silva e Luna remains in the presidency of the company until next week.

After the frictions caused by the nomination of Adriano Pires, Mr. Coelho’s announcement was seen as a new demonstration of strength by Mr. Albuquerque. Mr. Coelho was seen as his right-hand man in the ministry and, with this appointment, the minister will have two names of his trust in strategic state-owned companies in the sector: Itaipu and, now, Petrobras.

The two nominations pave the way for Petrobras shareholders to elect the company’s new board of directors at the Annual and Extraordinary General Meeting (AGOE) scheduled for next Wednesday. Since the retreat of Messrs. Pires and Landim, the federal government’s ticket was incomplete. From the original eight names, six were left. On Tuesday night, the ministry said that it had filled out the list of the federal government, the company’s controlling shareholder, for the board.

The ticket is now composed by Márcio Weber, José Mauro Ferreira Coelho, Sônia Villalobos, Ruy Schneider, Luiz Henrique Caroli, Murilo Marroquim, Carlos Eduardo Lessa Brandão and Eduardo Karrer. There are also seven candidates of suggested by minority shareholders for the board.

There are, therefore, 15 candidates for ten seats. The federal government’s candidates must face two minority shareholders’ candidates in a multiple-choice system in which the individual candidates with the most votes win. The remaining minority shareholders’ candidates will face each other in two elections in which the federal government does not vote.

One is in the separate election of the controlling shareholder related to the common shares (three names for one seat) and the other related to the preferred shares (two candidates for one seat). Petrobras’s board has 11 members, but the 11th person is elected by the employees. The name is Rosangela Buzanelli Torres, who is also already on the board. The mandate is for two years, until the 2024 general meeting, but with presidential elections ahead, chances are the board will be changed again next year.

It is not clear yet if there will be enough time until next week’s meeting for the names of Messrs. Coelho and Weber to be evaluated by Petrobras’s corporate governance bodies, responsible for analyzing if the names fit the company’s rules and the Law of State-Owned Companies. The eligibility committee (Celeg), linked to the people committee (COPE), can make this analysis in time for the meeting. “I believe they will try to do it,” a source said. If it is not possible, this check can be left for after the meeting. Mr. Weber’s name has already been checked, since he was on the first federal government list and is a candidate for reelection.

On Wednesday, Celeg concluded that Mr. Weber meets the necessary requirements and has no restrictions to run for the board. The committee said, however, that Mr. Weber will need to “adopt the necessary measures so that the company in which he has a stake formally abstains from providing services to Petrobras and its equity stakes, as well as relevant suppliers and competitors in the oil and gas sector”. Mr. Weber advises the PMI group that operates four deepwater drilling rigs that have Shell and ENI as clients.

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com