FUP advocates before the Council for balanced oil and gas exploration and a just energy transition.

FUP - A broad agenda of proposals aimed at developing the national industry, with the balanced exploration of oil and natural gas in Brazil, and with the generation of jobs in the country will be presented by the Unified Federation of Oil Workers (FUP) to the Economic, Social and Sustainable Development Council (CDESS) of the Presidency of the Republic, which officially opens this Thursday, the 4th, in Brasília.

The general coordinator of FUP, Deyvid Bacelar, who is part of the Council at the invitation of President Lula and the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, says that "workers have high expectations for this council, as it will present suggestions for public policies to generate employment, income, and combat hunger in Brazil. The oil and gas industry can greatly contribute to this agenda, especially by revitalizing national engineering and the Brazilian shipbuilding industry."

Among FUP's proposals is the theme of a just energy transition, which guarantees access to energy at a fair price, quality jobs in renewable energy production sectors, and an increase in the share of clean energy in the national energy mix, mitigating the effects of global warming.

FUP's contribution to CDESS is based on the principle that it is possible and necessary to recover Petrobras' leading role in the national industry. The oil workers' document recalls that, in 2003, at the beginning of Lula's first government, the weight of the oil sector in the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 2%; ten years later it rose to 13%, generating almost 500 direct jobs, including both direct and contracted workers.

“The challenge of this struggle is enormous, because the short-term interests of financial capital have contaminated Petrobras' performance in recent years. Petrobras has been prepared to operate almost exclusively as a producer of oil and natural gas, mainly in the pre-salt province,” criticizes Bacelar.

Main proposals from FUP to CDESS:

1 - End the Import Parity Price (PPI) policy, with the implementation of a fair pricing system for fuels, adopting as a parameter not only the international market price, but also the costs and sustainability of the industry. Cooking gas, gasoline, and diesel oil should receive differentiated treatment due to the importance of these items in the cost of living.

2 - Implementation of a regulatory stock of refined products and the creation of an export tax on crude oil, in order to capitalize a fund to moderate the prices of refined products (with the participation of society and workers in its management).

3 - Conducting oil auctions conditioned on domestic supply needs and the development of the national supply chain for goods, services, machinery and equipment, contributing to an increase in local content.

4 - Rescue of an integrated, 100% publicly owned Petrobras, in which the Federal Government holds all of the share capital, operating throughout the national territory. To achieve this, a return on investment in technology, research, and innovation is necessary.

5 - Halt the privatization process of Petrobras assets, investigate and analyze all asset sales carried out in the last five years. The objective is to re-nationalize what is possible, especially units considered strategic for the company's future and for the country's economic growth.

6 - Increasing Petrobras' refining capacity to guarantee domestic supply. This process gains relevance with the proposal to prioritize the export of refined products rather than crude oil, generating more and better jobs.

7 - Maintenance of the Production Sharing Model in oil fields considered strategic and in the pre-salt polygon.

8 - Petrobras can contribute significantly to the just energy transition process. To achieve this, it is necessary to revitalize the biofuels program, preserving PBio – Petrobras Biocombustíveis – and restarting its production plants.

9 - It is strategic for Petrobras to return to energy generation through wind and solar power plants, and to invest in research for the development of green hydrogen. Also on the topic of energy transition, the production of electricity through natural gas-fired power plants will be a necessity for the country in the coming years, including as preparation for an effective energy transition, with the closure of coal and diesel-fired power plants. The prospect of cheaper natural gas in the short/medium term expands this opportunity.