The Senate has two coups underway against Petrobras.

By Tereza Cruvinel

If government leaders don't take action to build a strong resistance, the Senate will approve two bills this week that severely impact Petrobras and, consequently, the Brazilian economy, which has multiple connections to the largest national company. One is the bill by Senator José Serra (PSDB/SP) that alters the rules for pre-salt exploration, releasing the company from the obligation to participate with at least 30% of the exploration of each field and to act as the sole operator in deep-sea oil extraction activities. The other is the bill by Senator Ricardo Ferraço (PMDB-ES), revoking the decree that guarantees Petrobras a simplified bidding regime for contracting goods and services for its core business.

Serra's project has already been widely discussed here on 247, on this blog and in other articles. Similar proposals exist in the Chamber of Deputies, also presented by PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) deputies, and it eliminates the current pre-salt sharing regime, which guarantees the state-owned company a share of the extracted oil. In practice, Serra's project reserves the exploitation of this wealth solely to private companies, arguing that it is necessary to "relieve" the state-owned company of its two obligations. Petrobras, however, has been overcoming the difficulties stemming from Lava Jato and obtained a profit of more than R$ 5 billion in the first quarter of the year. But it is said in the Senate that an agreement has already been reached, mediated by President Renan Calheiros, to guarantee the approval of Serra's proposal. President Dilma is against it, although her leader in the House, Delcídio Amaral, is in favor. Therefore, the government will have to take action, mobilizing the PT (Workers' Party) leader, Humberto Costa, and other allies. It will not be easy.

Ferraço's project is no less damaging because, by developing a competitive activity in the oil market, Petrobras will have much less agility in securing contracts if it is subordinated, like other state-owned companies, to the dictates of Law 8.666. The draconian Law on Bidding and Contracts, while unable to prevent corruption, creates a tangle of difficulties for public managers, compromising agility and administrative results. Just today, in a Senate session honoring the physician Aloysio Campos da Paz, who passed away in January, former TCU (Federal Court of Accounts) minister Carlos Átila said, in defense of the management model of the Sarah Network, which he helped formulate, based on a management contract: "I compare the Brazilian public administrator to someone thrown into the trunk of a car with their hands and feet tied, who is asked to produce results. Some manage to break free to achieve the objectives. Others resign themselves."

Decree 2735, which created the simplified regime for Petrobras, was issued by former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and allows the company to make purchases through invitation letters or price quotations, a much simpler and faster process in which several suppliers are consulted, with the one presenting the best offer prevailing. It is true that the contracts questioned by Operation Lava Jato were signed based on this decree. In one of his last testimonies, former director Paulo Roberto Costa changed his version and said that no overpricing was included. That there were bribes, but they were paid by the contractors with their own profit margin. Be that as it may, what prevents corruption are more rigid control mechanisms, not subjecting the company to rules that will make it more constrained and less efficient. Therefore, Ferraço's project also strongly impacts Petrobras.