President of Aepet challenges Ciro's economist regarding refineries.
Engineer Felipe Coutinho, president of the Association of Petrobras Engineers (Aepet), says that opening the oil refining market to private investors, advocated by Nelson Marconi, from Ciro Gomes' team, would inevitably lead to the privatization of Petrobras refineries; Marconi argues otherwise; understand the controversy.
247 - Engineer Felipe Coutinho, president of the Association of Petrobras Engineers (Aepet), believes that opening the oil refining market to private investors, as advocated by Nelson Marconi, a member of the economic team of PDT presidential candidate Ciro Gomes, would inevitably lead to the privatization of Petrobras refineries.
In an interview with Reuters published this Thursday, the 14th, Marconi stated that he foresees opening the oil refining sector to competition and allowing private companies to build new refineries, among other economic measures. Reuters also published that Ciro's program included the sale of Petrobras assets, a point that was later denied by Ciro's team.
On his Facebook page, Nelson Marconi stated: "I gave this interview to Reuters in which I discuss several points of the program not addressed in previous conversations. It is important to clarify that at no point do I talk about privatizing Petrobras refineries, let that be clear; this measure is NOT part of our program. We understand, however, that there should be more competition in refining, as the article's title says, and therefore we welcome private sector investment in refining. Petrobras is a strategic company for the country and selling its assets is not even remotely on our minds. It would be inconsistent with everything we have been advocating. I think my statement is quite clear and sufficient."
In a statement to 247, Coutinho, from Aepet, argues that "the imposition of competition disintegrates Petrobras' refining capacity and raises production costs for consumers."
"The current pricing policy was defended as enabling competition with the entry of importers and making the privatization of Petrobras refineries more attractive. So the consumer pays more so that there is competition. If there is any logic to it, it serves private and anti-national interests," he assesses.
According to him, "enabling the entry of private competitors without privatizing Petrobras' refineries and without increasing prices for consumers is impossible."
"It would be necessary to guarantee regional monopolies for refining, terminals, and logistics in regions fully served by the state-owned refineries. The result would be an increase in production costs due to the disintegration of the national system and the consequent increase in consumer prices," he concludes.