Petrobras needs to be re-nationalized.
Petrobras' own president, Graça Foster, acknowledged that in recent years, the company has experienced, in some of its ventures, "a story to be learned from and not repeated."
It's well known that members of the Workers' Party tend to resort to mystification and deception to justify their wrongdoing. But this distorted stance goes to extremes when the subject is Petrobras. In these cases, they completely lose it.
This is what happened with Congressman José Guimarães, leader of the PT in the Chamber of Deputies, in an article published in this newspaper on the 19th. He resorted to the old PT strategy of fabricating ghosts and weaving fantasies, trying to cover up the serious problems afflicting our largest public company, disrespecting Brazilians.
The state-owned company is facing one of the most serious crises in its history, into which it was pushed by the reckless management of the Workers' Party. Never before has the company been so degraded by partisan control, so harmed by mismanagement, and so disoriented by misguided choices.
Petrobras' own president, Graça Foster, acknowledged that in recent years, the company has experienced, in some of its ventures, "a story to be learned from and not repeated." She is aware of the wrong paths the company took during the years when Dilma Rousseff was president of the Board of Directors and Sérgio Gabrielli was in charge.
One of Petrobras' most serious problems is its insufficient refining capacity. New projects only serve to drain money. The Abreu Lima Refinery has seen its costs multiply tenfold. Those in Ceará and Maranhão remain just promises. The Comperj project is dragging on, and Pasadena is a scandal. Therefore, the country finds itself increasingly dependent on imported oil and fuels. The much-vaunted self-sufficiency in oil has proven to be a pipe dream.
The last few years have been a period of routine frustration: in the last decade, Petrobras has never met a production target, which continues to fall and, even with the pre-salt fields starting to produce, is not expected to rise again before 2015.
Guimarães says that Petrobras is among the most valuable brands in the world. But he omits the fact that the company is already worth less than AmBev and Ecopetrol, the Colombian oil company.
The opening to competition, resulting from the 1997 oil law, made the company much more competitive, profitable, and productive, supported by an excellent workforce. It was during Fernando Henrique's government that the state-owned company experienced its best period. Unfortunately, this process was hampered and reversed, starting with the change in the sector's legal framework, imposed by Lula's administration with the blessing of then-Minister Dilma.
The future of Petrobras is uncertain. When in opposition, the PT (Workers' Party) presented itself as the company's greatest defender and accused its adversaries of plotting against it. It is urgent to re-nationalize Petrobras and remove it from the private and partisan interests that the PT has entrenched there.