Singer on pre-salt oil reserves: Dilma will pay for the turnaround.

247 - First, President Dilma Rousseff argued that it would be "a crime to privatize the pre-salt oil reserves." Three years later, she opened the exploration of the area to foreign companies. Why? In André Singer's opinion, she wanted to "show good behavior during a period of profound distrust from the bourgeoisie." However, the political scientist believes her biography will pay the price for what he calls this "reversal." Read his article in Folha de S.Paulo:

Dilma's biography

In October 2010, candidate Dilma Rousseff stated during her election campaign: "It's a crime to privatize the pre-salt reserves." Three years later, the president handed over 60% of the largest oil reserve below the salt layer to four foreign companies, two private and two Chinese state-owned.

Concerned about the gap between intention and action, which she will be held accountable for next year, Dilma went on TV again last Monday. This time, she said that 85% of the revenue generated by the Libra oil field would go to the State and Petrobras, therefore there would have been no privatization.

It is true that while Fernando Henrique Cardoso used the concession system, the current administration uses the profit-sharing method, approved at the end of Lula's second term. However, although distinct, with the new form being less harmful to national interests, both are ways of opening up exploration to foreign companies. The question is why do it.

The obvious answer: Brazil would not be able to carry out the service on its own. This was the statement made by then-federal deputy Luiz Paulo Vellozo Lucas (PSDB-ES) in 2010 to Folha. "We will need hundreds of billions of dollars to explore the pre-salt layer, and it's nonsense to think that Petrobras and the Brazilian state will have the money to do everything," declared the politician, to which Dilma retorted as described above.

Dilma's candidacy seems more appropriate than President Dilma's actions, at least judging by the lawsuit filed by lawyer Fábio Comparato and engineer Ildo Sauer. It contains an elucidating excerpt from the testimony of Maria das Graças Foster, head of the state-owned company, to the Senate in September. According to Foster, Petrobras, "from a technical and operational standpoint," could handle 100% of the Libra exploration. What the company wouldn't be able to do was pay the R$15 billion that the government set as a "signing bonus" for a company to participate in the auction.

But what is the point of the government charging a government-owned company money it doesn't have to participate in an auction it didn't need to hold? That's the crux of the matter. The high entry fee, criticized even by the former president of Petrobras, José Sergio Gabrielli, was allegedly set to prevent Petrobras from independently exploring the largest oil reserve ever discovered in the country.

Why? I think, but I have no way to prove it, that Dilma wanted to incorporate private capital into the operation to show good behavior during a period of deep distrust from the bourgeoisie. With this, according to Sauer and Comparato, the Union will lose R$ 176 billion, in addition to the loss of sovereignty. In 2014, the election may even be won, but Dilma's biography will pay the price for this turnaround.